


Time and Again

by Wushu (samuraioni)



Category: Code Lyoko
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-11
Updated: 2019-12-11
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:20:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 30,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21758212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/samuraioni/pseuds/Wushu
Summary: AU: X.A.N.A. has won; this is how the survivors fight to take back the future.
Relationships: Jeremie Belpois/Aelita Schaeffer, Yumi Ishiyama/Ulrich Stern
Kudos: 6





	Time and Again

Rating: T  
Series: Code Lyoko  
Summary: (Ulrich/Yumi) (Jeremie/Aelita) AU: X.A.N.A. has won; this is how the  
survivors fight to take back the future.  
Disclaimer: Code Lyoko belongs to France 3 and Canal J and whatever other party  
they are involved with, be it MoonScoop or AnteFilms, or whichever other  
production company they decide to use.

 **AN:** Rated T for violence and heavy doses of science, so the scientific squeamish should be warned. [Mwuahahahahahahaha!] Oh, I also made all the characters older. Believe it or not this story was inspired by a poem I wrote, not really a surprise to those who have read some of my other works.

 **AN2:** This story is going to be a long read; 69 pages and 30,222 words, easily the longest single part story I have written to date. Just a warning. I may in the future break it up into chapters if there is enough demand for it, but I doubt it.

 **Scientific Explanations (In Brief. for more detailed information please look on Wikipedia):**  
**Novikov consistency principle:** The Novikov consistency principle asserts that if an event exists and that would give rise to a paradox, or to any "change" to the past whatsoever, then the probability of that event is zero. In short time won’t let a paradox create itself.  
**Daniel Greenberger** and **Karl Svozil** proposed that quantum theory gives a model for time travel without paradoxes. In quantum theory observation causes possible states to 'collapse' into one measured state (Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle); hence, the past observed from the present is deterministic (it has only one possible state), but the present observed from the past has many possible states until our actions cause it to collapse into one state. Our actions will then be seen to have been inevitable. (Look on wiki under time travel).

 _Italics_ – narration  
**Bold** – thoughts/emphasis  
**_Bold/Italics_** \- Poem

**AaAaA**

_How many times have I cheated death? How many times has a Return to the Past kept me alive? Yet now, as I kneel here before you I almost wish that I wasn’t so lucky. I continually wish that this future wasn’t the one that existed, I pray for a future where things turn out differently, a future where we don’t have to live in shadows and exist in the darkness._

_Exist. That seems to be all I have been doing for these past few years, hiding in the shadows to stay alive, if you can even call that an existence. Yet now, as I am once again able to look upon you, I wonder why I haven’t just given in, just given up the fight and let him win; totally and completely, if only so I could be with you again._

_With a sigh I glance toward you. Reaffirming the fact that I can’t give in, once again showing me why I fight. I know in my heart that you would want me to keep up the fight, keep trying to find a way to make the world better, no matter what. For you I would go into hell itself and slap the devil, if I’m willing to do that, then I must carry on, I must fight to the bitter end._

_And what a bitter end it will be if I am caught. Knowing that my time is short I must leave. But I promise that I will return to see you again soon._

_As I get up to leave, I look around us at our friends, all of them silent as I begin to rise, their very presence strengthening my resolve to carry on. It is said that hope is a powerful thing, I can tell you that’s true. Hope is all that I have had since the incident five years ago, since the day I had to leave you and our friends. I hope that one day this war will be over and I will once again be reunited with you, my love, and our friends. Until then, I’ll keep fighting, keep on living, knowing one day, we’ll be together again, even if it is in death._

_Moving to stand before you, I gently trace your name, the angel watching over you smiling sadly as I do._

Yumi Ishiyama  
Born - March 18, 1988  
Died – April 17, 2006  
Beloved Friend and Daughter, You Will Be Missed

_My reflections are broken when a siren blares in the distance, setting off a chain reaction as the alarm carries across the night sky, much like tornado sirens of old._

_The curfew siren tells me that my time here is up, I can’t be picked up by any of his agents, I must return to the shadows. Moving silently I leave the cemetery, even as I leave you I make this solemn promise;_ Yumi, I swear that I will return to you, and when I do I’ll confess my feelings, before it’s too late.

_Passing the cemetery gates, I pull my gray hooded sweatshirt over my head. Moving toward what once used to be a park, I slip into the shadows and disappear into the encroaching night._

_My name was once Ulrich Stern, but he no longer exists, he died five years ago in the same explosion that claimed his friends. Now I am simply call_ Ishiyama _, the name that once belonged to the only girl I have ever loved, now I am a freedom fighter. I fight for the freedom of humanity from the control of a super computer virus called X.A.N.A.; this is my story of survival and my fight to take back my future and my past._

_I am one of a handful of people fighting for freedom, yet even as I walk away from the cemetery, I know my friends are with me, I know I’m not alone. I’m never alone, not if I hold their memories in my heart._

_What happened to them, you may be asking, what is this incident you mentioned? A good question I say, one deserving of an answer, if not for any other reason than for when I am dead, I want the world to know that we at least tried to stop him, that we never gave up the fight, but above all that I want the truth to be known._

_This tale of woe begins five years ago, back when we still went to_ Kadic Academy _, back when there still_ was _an Academy._

**_Time and again the memories come, while all else fades away,  
Reminding me of all I’ve lost, now that you are gone.  
Times spent together and memories shared, but fragments of our history._ **

**AaAaA**

“Ulrich, pass the ball,” Odd yelled as he ran down the soccer field toward the goal. Ulrich looked up and nodded before kicking the ball to him.

Ulrich Stern, star player of the _Kadic Academy_ soccer team. He was a young man of 17 years; he had brown hair and brown eyes. He stood a good five foot six, not tall but still not short like Odd.

Odd received the ball and ran; he ran as hard as he could before kicking the ball into the goal. Almost as if in slow motion, the ball passed by the outstretched fingers of the goalie, landing in the net.

“Yes!” Odd shouted as he pumped his fist in victory, that had been the winning goal.

Odd Della Robbia, age 17 years. He’s a blonde with a purple streak in his hair. No one knows where the spot came from or if it’s fake or natural. He has brown eyes and also has the distinction of being Ulrich Stern’s best friend and roommate. Odd is only a few inches shorter than Ulrich.

“Good job, Odd,” Ulrich said as he approached to celebrate with his friend.

“Well, it was a team effort,” he replied as he put his arm over Ulrich’s shoulder and began walking toward their bench where their coach, Jim, was waiting with the rest of the team.

“All right guys, good game,” Jim said as Ulrich and Odd joined them. “But don’t let it go to your head. We still have two more teams to beat before we’re in the finals. But don’t worry about that now, go hit the showers.”

As the team began filing into the showers, Ulrich glanced to where Jeremie, Aelita, and Yumi had been watching the game. When he did he saw them wave in acknowledgement, but what caught his attention was when Yumi winked at him. Pondering this, he and Odd disappeared into the lockers, a light blush tingeing his cheeks.

Yumi Ishiyama, the oldest of the group by one year. She was a Japanese transfer student who moved to France with her family when her father got a promotion. She had shoulder length black hair and gentle black eyes. Her style of dress could be considered Goth, yet it wasn’t. All she ever wore was black, no strange makeup or torn clothing, she was also the tallest of the group standing at five foot nine. It was a well-known fact among the rest of the group, but unknown to Ulrich, that Yumi was in love with him. What Yumi didn’t know, but the rest of the group did, was that Ulrich felt the same way. Confused? Join the club, so was the rest of the group.

Jeremie Belpois watched the interaction between his friends with amusement, silent as it may have been. Grinning at his lovelorn friends he pushed his glasses back up onto the bridge of his nose. Storing his laptop into its carrying bag, he slung the strap across his shoulder. Jeremie was the brains of the group, with Ulrich being the brawn and Yumi the leader. Odd, he was the comic relief, Aelita was harder to classify, but she was the heart of the group. Jeremie smoothed the wrinkles out of his pale blue turtleneck sweater before running a hand through his blonde hair. His brown eyes were twinkling in amusement as he watched Yumi head toward the cafeteria, lost in a little world with just Ulrich and her.

“Thinking about Ulrich no doubt,” he said with a chuckle as Aelita approached him.

Coming up beside him was Aelita, the girl he loved. Her soft pink hair waved in the breeze while her inquisitive brown eyes followed Yumi. Taking a moment to straighten her pink overall skirt, she turned to Jeremie and asked the question that was on everyone’s mind.

“Do you think they’ll ever realize how much they love each other?”

“I’m not sure, but I hope so. This is Yumi’s last year at _Kadic_.”

“Well, I’m sure everything will turn out alright,” she replied, always the bright part of any day.

“I sure hope so Aelita.”

**AaAaA**

After showering and changing into their normal clothes, Odd and Ulrich left the locker room and began heading to the cafeteria. After a game like that they both needed some dinner.

“So, do you think there will be anything edible?” Ulrich asked as they approached, the various smells coming from the stoves of the cafeteria quickly putting the ‘edible’ theory to rest.

“Don’t know, but that all depends on your definition of ‘edible’,” Odd replied nonchalantly with a shrug. Ulrich could only sigh and shake his head at his friend. It was well known that Odd would eat anything that was put in front of him, once he almost ate the lunch tray. When this was brought to his attention he only said that it needed a little hot sauce, his comment achieved the humor he was looking for, removing the embarrassment from him, sort of.

Performing a quick once over of the food, Ulrich decided to skip dinner tonight, for some reason the mystery-meat ‘Chicken’ Parmesan just wasn’t doing it for him.

“Uhh, I think I’ll get something later, you can have my portion Odd,” Ulrich said as he quickly stepped away from the chicken that appeared to be moving on its own, he didn’t even want to mention the fact that he thought he heard a ‘cluck’ come from it.

“Really? You don’t know what you’re missing.”

“I’m sure, and honestly I don’t think I want to find out,” Ulrich replied with conviction when he heard a _burp_ come from the chicken on Odd’s plate. He quickly made a hasty retreat to the table that Yumi and the others occupied.

“Hey guys,” Ulrich greeted as he sat down.

“Hey,” Yumi responded as she looked up from the salad she had bought from the cafeteria, to Ulrich it looked fairly safe.

“Good game Ulrich,” Jeremie congratulated even as he continued to type on his laptop.

“Yeah, it was one of the best games I’ve seen in a long time,” Aelita said with a smile.

“Uh, Aelita, it’s only the second game that you’ve seen,” Yumi replied.

“Well, that still makes it the best game I’ve ever seen,” she stated as she stuck her tongue out at Yumi.

All Yumi could do was laugh, transforming it into a shy smile when she saw Ulrich watching her.

“So, no dinner?” Yumi asked Ulrich to break the silence that fell between them, only punctuated by the sound of Jeremie typing.

“Not hungry,” he began to say, but just as he completed that thought his stomach betrayed him by letting out a growl, cutting off anything else he was going to say.

“Traitor,” he whispered as Yumi broke out into laughter again, his face flushing slightly in embarrassment.

“Here,” she said as she pushed an apple toward him.

“Thanks,” he replied with a blush, both from his stomach’s betrayal and from Yumi’s hand touching his as she passed him the fruit.

“Ahhhhh! Isn’t that cute, the _lovebirds_ are sharing food,” a voice laced with bitterness said behind Ulrich. Instantly he went on the defensive as his posture straightened from the partial slouch he had been resting in, hand almost crushing the apple.

“What do you want Sissi?” He said with venom in his voice.

“I just wanted to find out if you’ve decided to give up on _her_ and date a _real_ woman.”

“We’re not dating,” Ulrich and Yumi said at the same time, blushing when they realized this, their eyes making brief contact before looking away.

Before Sissi could form another reply, for you could tell she had one by the evil smirk on her face, a new voice broke in, cutting her off.

“If you’re a real woman, I think I’d rather die a bachelor,” Odd said as he placed his tray on the table beside Ulrich who shifted away from the chicken, afraid it might try to grab him.

You could see the fury build up in Sissi, but she controlled her outburst enough to only say one thing before she stormed off, Nicolas and Herve behind her.

Before she stormed off, she said one thing and one thing only.

“Be careful what you wish for Odd, it may happen.”

With that she was gone.

“Ok, that was weird,” Yumi said as the furor died down.

“You can say that again,” Ulrich replied. “Thanks for the apple Yumi.”

“No problem,” she replied with a blush creeping up her cheeks, a matching one on Ulrich’s face, their embarrassment from the dating comment forgotten by their new embarrassment, sharing food. After that small blush session, there was the basic banter among friends. Unbeknownst to them, Sissi was glaring at them the entire time.

**_Secrets we shared, secrets we made,  
I could tell you anything.  
First we were friends, then it was love,  
how simple things were then._ **

**AaAaA**

Dinner led to the inevitable conclusion of the school day, what this meant for Odd, Jeremie, Aelita, Yumi and Ulrich was that they had homework, as much as it pained some of them, namely Odd. Parting ways outside the cafeteria, the friends said goodnight as they went their separate ways for the night.

“Good night guys,” Yumi said as she began walking away from the others and toward the street that would lead her home.

“Night Yumi,” Ulrich said with a wave making her blush. She did manage to keep walking though, returning the wave with a small one of her own.

Once she was out of sight Odd began in on the conversation Ulrich knew was coming.

Aelita and Jeremie had already disappeared to do whatever it was they did together, probably work on a program to defeat X.A.N.A.; at least Ulrich hoped that’s what they did.

“Why don’t you ask her out?” Odd asked as they began the climb to their dorm room.

“Odd, we’ve been over this before, we’re …”

“Just friends, that’s what you keep telling me, but I still don’t believe it. I see the way you look at each other, even if you two don’t. Don’t think that Jeremie and Aelita have missed it either, they haven’t.”

Ulrich sighed as they opened their dorm room door.

“I just can’t come right out and tell her, you know that. No matter how many times you or Jeremie say she loves me, I can’t believe it. Why would a girl like her ever like a guy like me? She’s so beautiful why would she want me when she could have any guy at school? Besides, you know there are things in my past that she can never know about. Even if I say anything I know that she won’t return my feelings, I don’t want to lose her friendship. I’m not so sure I can live without her, even if it’s just as a friend.”

“Don’t be so down on yourself Ulrich, you two will get together eventually, and then you won’t have any worries about losing her.” He replied with a grin, his dog Kiwi barking once in agreement.

“Whatever Odd, come on, let’s get started on this math homework.”

**AaAaA**

“Hello?” Yumi groggily asked as she fumbled to answer her cell phone.

“Yumi.”

“Ulrich? What’s wrong?” she asked as she sat up, pulling the comforter around her to guard against the night’s chill, it was 1:30 in the morning after all.

“Meet us at the factory as soon as possible.”

“Is it X.A.N.A.?” she asked.

“Jeremie doesn’t know for sure, but get here fast,” he replied.

“Understood, I’ll be there soon. Bye Ulrich.”

“Bye Yumi,” he said as the line disconnected.

Yumi quickly dressed and sneaked out her window, careful not to wake her parents or little brother.

Reaching the edge of the roof she jumped off, rolling as she hit the soft grass. Rising to her feet she quietly made her way to the front gate and out into the street. Once safe on the sidewalk, she began running to the old factory.

**AaAaA**

“I’m sorry I called you all out of bed for no reason,” Jeremie said once the gang had assembled in the control room.

“Why, what happened?” Odd asked as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

“Nothing, that’s the problem,” he said with a weary sigh.

“I’m not following Jeremie,” Ulrich said after glancing at the confused expressions on Odd and Yumi’s faces.

“A tower had activated itself, that much I know. Beyond that I’m not sure what happened.”

“Why don’t you talk us through it,” Yumi suggested with a smile.

“Ok, I’ll try.” He took a deep breath and began to retell what had apparently happened.

“I received an alarm about an active tower. I came to the factory to make sure, once I confirmed it, I called you guys. Before you guys got here something weird happened, the supercomputer sent out a short-wave radio signal. I wasn’t able to trace it before it shut off, after that the tower deactivated and everything went back to normal.”

“So, no attack?” Odd asked still half asleep.

“Apparently not,” Jeremie replied with a shrug, “I guess you can go back to bed then.”

“Huh, ok Jeremie. But call us if anything weird happens.” With that, Odd left the factory.

“Yeah, call us if anything happens,” Ulrich said as he and Yumi left as well. The only reply from Jeremie was a grunt, drawing a giggle from Aelita who had been silent the entire time. As Ulrich and Yumi were leaving Aelita mentioned that she would stay with Jeremie to help if she could.

Once Ulrich and Yumi were outside, he turned to her.

“Yumi, can I walk you home?”

“I’d like that,” she replied with a blush, “thank you.”

“No problem,” he replied as he blushed as well.

**AaAaA**

Reaching her house, they turned to each other and just stared into the other’s eyes.

“Yumi,” Ulrich began, but was cut off when her watch beeped, it was now 2am.

“Ulrich, I have to go now. Thanks for walking me home; it was very sweet of you.” She said with a blush as she leaned over and kissed his cheek.

“Good night,” she said even as a blush bloomed across his face, her own still in place as she stepped toward her house.

“Good night Yumi,” Ulrich replied as he watched her climb onto her roof via the tree located on the side. He waited until she had entered her room before he turned and walked away, hands in his pockets and a smile on his face.

Maybe the others were right after all.

**AaAaA**

With a Herculean effort, Ulrich managed to drag himself from his bed and across the room to shut off the ever-annoying hell spawn he erroneously called an alarm clock. Once again he was glad to have not purchased the clock that would roll out of the way when you tried to turn it off; he knew he would have thrown it out the window long ago. Stretching so that his spine gave off a series of little _pops_ , he waited as his sight returned from the rush of blood to his head. He’d learned from watching Odd that moving around when you get a blood rush was a bad idea, after all Ulrich did have to take him to the nurse more than once, apparently Odd was a slow learner.

Giving a yawn to match his stretch, he moved to his dresser to grab a pair of clean clothes and his towel. Opening the dorm room door he glanced out into the hall before stepping out and closing the door behind him.

Ulrich liked to wake up early so that he could beat everyone else to the showers. While he normally achieved this he didn’t get much time to enjoy the hot water, there was only so much to go around at any one time. For him, a nice long shower was something to savor and enjoy.

So, with great reluctance he finished his daily hygiene ritual by brushing his teeth. The shower had been especially relaxing this morning for some reason, or maybe he was still high on the kiss he got from Yumi the night before. Even if it was only on the cheek, it was still a kiss from the girl he loved.

Making his way back to his dorm, he found that Odd was still asleep. With a sigh he walked to the comatose Odd and began shaking him.

“Odd, time to get up, you need to take a shower before we can go to breakfast.”

Whether it be the shaking or the mention of food, Odd sprang out of bed and grabbed his own towel and clothes. Before Ulrich could blink his roommate was gone.

Giving a small chuckle, Ulrich set about gathering everything he’d need for the day; wallet, keys, cell phone, and schoolbooks. All were stored away in pockets or book bag.

By the time he’d finished looking for his ever-elusive math book, Odd had returned from the showers.

“You ready to go Odd?” Ulrich asked as he put his book in his backpack.

“Just let me get my shoes on,” the blond replied even as he was pulling his sneakers on. “There, ready to go.”

Giving his friend a pat on the shoulder, Ulrich led the way out the door to the cafeteria, hoping to not blush too much when he got near Yumi.

**AaAaA**

_In the time following the explosion, the news ran the story as either a possible terrorist attack or just long unused chemicals exploding. Of course, we all now know what the cause was, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Breakfast that morning followed the usual routine, Odd eating as much of our food as he could, Jeremie and Aelita talking about the anti-virus that would free her from X.A.N.A and the supercomputer, even as Odd ate their breakfast, and Yumi and I sneaking small blushing glances at each other. Fortunately Sissi decided to not bother us this morning. Truth be told, we didn’t even see her when we entered the cafeteria, Odd thought she may have been sick._ _How wrong he was._

**AaAaA**

Following breakfast and a fine job of hiding their glances from the other, Ulrich and Yumi followed Odd from the Cafeteria and into the courtyard for a little relaxing and sun before classes began. Aelita and Jeremie were already stationed on their bench, having left to make sure no one else took it since they skipped eating.

Ulrich and Yumi smiled at each other as they listened to Odd go on and on about his newest song.

“…It’ll have a lot of drum beats mixed in with some digital synth and …”

Shaking their heads they exchanged a silent signal as they walked behind him. Acknowledging the other they slowed their walk until Odd was several feet ahead of them. Once that was completed they took off running at an angle, trying to beat Odd to the bench.

They did this for one reason, to prove that he really didn’t pay any attention to what went on around him.

After arriving at the bench ahead of their friend, Ulrich and Yumi sat down as they tried to catch their breath. It was rather difficult to do considering they were still laughing like they had been as they pulled their little trick on Odd.

"Now that," Yumi began as she struggled to get her breath, the giggles preventing the completion of the action.

"Was funny," Ulrich finished as he too fought to stop laughing even as they unconsciously leaned against each other for support.

"Did you two ditch Odd again?" Jeremie asked without looking up from his laptop.

"Maybe," they said in unison which had the effect of setting them laughing again.

"Hey Einstein," Odd said as he reached the bench but stopped when he noticed Ulrich and Yumi. Turning to look behind him he realized that he wasn't imagining them in front of him as they weren't behind him.

"Hey!" he exclaimed with a pout as he realized what they had done. "That’s not funny."

"Yes it is," Ulrich said with a glance at Yumi that sent the two back into a fit of laughter.

"Ya know, one day I'll be gone, and then you won't have me around to make fun of," Odd protested as he crossed his arms across his chest in mock irritation.

"Odd," Ulrich said as he rose to comfort Odd as Yumi was still laughing. "That’s not true, nothing will ever happen to you or anyone else as long as I'm here."

"Yeah, same here," Yumi said as she too comforted Odd, her hand accidentally covering Ulrich's as she placed it on Odd's shoulder.

Their eyes met for a brief second behind Odd’s head before they turned away, a light blush tainting their cheeks.

Before anyone could say anything into the silence that followed there was a beeping coming from Jeremie’s computer.

Quickly switching to the window he needed he announced what everyone already knew.

“X.A.N.A.”

Without a word all five of them turned and began to make their way toward the building that housed the boiler room and the path to the factory that lay within.

Before they could reach the safety of the school they were stopped, or more accurately Ulrich was stopped, by Sissi.

“Ulrich, my father wanted me to tell you something.”

“What is it?” he asked with a sigh as he saw the others stop to wait.

“It’s not something for _them_ to hear,” Sissi replied with a nod in the gang’s direction.

“Go on without me, I’ll meet you guys in Jeremie’s room.”

His answer was a nod from his friends as they took off and left him to face Sissi alone.

Once they were gone and he had stolen one last look at Yumi’s disappearing back, he turned to face Sissi as he crossed his arms.

“Ok, they’re gone, what do you want?” he asked.

“Ulrich dear, you don’t need to take that tone with me, your friends are gone now, you don’t need to pretend.” She said as she moved to his side and slid her arm through his. He pulled his arm away from her and took a step back.

“I’m not pretending anything, Sissi. I really don’t like you.” With that he turned to walk away before her voice stopped him short.

“I know about Lyoko, Ulrich.” She said with a smirk. “I know all about Aelita too.”

His blood ran cold as he turned to face her.

“How could you possible know about that?”

“Oh, I know all about you and your friends,” she began as she started to circle him like a vulture. “I know that you guys aren’t going to Jeremie’s room, you’re going to the factory to stop X.A.N.A., but I can tell you it’s not going to work. You can’t stop him, he will rule the world and you can’t stop it.”

“Are you crazy?” he asked in shock as he stared at her.

“I have never felt saner in my life. You know that you will all die once he comes to power, some sooner than others.” This time there was a victorious smirk on her face, a smirk that grew as she spoke again. “Join us Ulrich, rule the world with us. It’s the only way you’ll survive you know.”

He ignored the last part as the threat of ‘sooner than others’ rang through his head.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Hmm? Do you mean the promise of death? Well that’s simple Ulrich dear, even as your friends approach the factory they are approaching their death. You see X.A.N.A. is free now. He doesn’t need the supercomputer any more. As we speak your friends are walking into a giant bomb.”

She stopped to throw another victorious look at him.

“You can try to call them, but it won’t work. All cell phone service has been terminated. If you want to save them you’d better start running, once they hit the scanner room it’s all over.”

He didn’t even wait to hear the sound of her laughter or to see another person appear beside her.

“You did well my love,” he said as he put his arm around her and gave her a kiss on the temple.

“Thank you,” she said with a smile as she returned the kiss. “Do you think he’ll make it?”

“No, he’ll get there in time to watch them die.” He replied with a hollow laugh.

“I love you, Sissi,” he said as he leaned down to capture her lips with his own.

“I love you too,” she said just before their lips connected, “William.”

**AaAaA**

Ulrich couldn’t remember a time when he had run faster in his life. But he also never had a reason to run like this before, now he had four reasons, one more important to him than the others.

He could feel his muscles begin to burn as he ran; he knew he had to push his body to the limits and beyond. Even as he ran his breath came in short bursts as his body struggled to draw the life giving air that was starved from his muscles.

He grew hopeful as he saw the factory loom on the horizon; he pushed himself even harder as he raced down the street and through the park.

Even as he reached the bank of the river and moved toward the bridge connecting it to the factory’s island he had hope. He had hope until the very moment he was within a hundred feet of the bridge. It was at this point that time slowed to a crawl and all sounds ceased, all but the rumble that came from the factory and the faint flash that appeared from the windows.

The last thing he knew was a deafening roar as the light, sound and heat of the explosion took him off his feet and threw him back into the trees where he collided with a particularly large one.

Even as consciousness left him and the dark oblivion took him, he could think of nothing but his friends. He knew without a doubt that they had all been inside. His last thoughts were those of regrets for the things he’d never said to them. His biggest regret was never telling Yumi that he loved her.

**_My love belonged to only you,  
we’d be together forever,  
but oh how short that really was.  
Stories told of happy endings, always speak of forever.  
But forever isn’t long enough to cherish those you love._ **

It was with the regret of not telling her he loved her that he lost to the pull of the darkness and succumbed to the bliss that was oblivion.

**AaAaA**

_It can easily be said that that was the moment that defined my life. With the knowledge that my friends were dead and that X.A.N.A. was no longer trapped in Lyoko, I made a vow to never stop fighting until the world was free from his grasp. To this day I have kept that promise._

_Now, five years later I am able to finally put my plan into action. A plan so secret no other living soul knows of its existence. If it succeeds then none of this will have ever happened; if it fails then I too may find myself resting in the cemetery with Yumi and the others._

_But I once again get ahead of myself._

_Following the explosion there was a police investigation, they determined that some of the chemicals that were used to make the cars weren’t removed and that they exploded from overheating. Of course I knew the truth, but what could I say?_

_Those days following the explosion have become muddled and hazy. I do not care to remember them yet I know that I must if I desire to keep my reason for living and fighting._

_Following Yumi’s funeral her parents came over to where I sat in my temporary wheelchair. I had been knocked unconscious by the blast and impact with the tree, I had a temporary paralysis. The doctors said it was more mental than physical._

_As I was sitting there staring at the plot where Yumi had just been buried I was roused from my despair by a hand on my shoulder. I turned my head and looked up into the reddened eyes of her parents._

_“Ulrich,” her mother said as she wrapped me in a hug and began to cry, unable to say what she had been trying to say._

_“Ulrich,” Yumi’s father said as he gently patted his wife’s back even as Hiroki held onto his leg and cried. “I know that I have been harsh on you in the past, but I want you to know that she really did care for you. Many times she would lose focus and stare off into space with a smile on her face when your name was mentioned. She was just too shy and scared to ever admit her feelings to you.”_

_He paused to wipe his own tears even as he pulled a wrapped parcel from the bag beside him._

_“I know… I know she would want you to have this,” he said as he passed me the package._

_“Open it when you get back to your room,” he suggested as he collected his family and began to leave the cemetery._

_“Oh, one last thing,” he said as he left his family and returned to my side. Kneeling before me before he spoke. “I know that you loved her, I could see it every time you looked at her. I want you to know that I think that you and Yumi would have been very happy together and that I would have given you both my blessing had you only asked.”_

_With that he rose and left the cemetery and me behind._

**_Hands of fate pulled and tore, ripping you from me.  
Now you’re gone, taken away, in Death’s arms you now lay,  
leaving just the memories that haunt me everyday._ **

_Words cannot explain the pain and guilt that washed over me as I sat there in the middle of a cemetery next to four freshly covered graves. Even as the rain began to fall I was unable to pull myself from their sides, none more so than Yumi. In the wake of her father’s declaration and her mother’s tears, I came to a decision, one that would shape my destiny for the next few years._

_After sitting in the rain for almost an hour I was able to pull myself from the cemetery and make my way back to the school. I had been given a temporary room on the ground floor until I was able to walk again. As I pulled myself onto my bed I placed the package Yumi’s father had given me beside me. I stared at it a moment before ripping the soggy paper off and throwing it across the room. There in all its glory was the stuffed animal I had given her not to long ago. She had once told me that it was her most cherished possession. As the tears began to fall I pulled it to me and buried my head in its soft fur. Sadly doing so only created more tears for it smelled of Yumi, her unique scent of cherry blossoms and vanilla. She had slept with the stuffed animal cuddled against her; this thought alone was enough for me to cry myself asleep._

_The days after that were uneventful; I went through the motions of life. I stopped talking to anyone; instead I poured myself into my homework. My grades turned around but what good was that if my friends weren’t there to share the achievement. I began to get straight A’s, a fact that pleased me as it proved it could be done. But that’s not where my true pleasure lay, no, it was in the knowledge that I may be able to understand the instruction manual that Jeremie had left behind in his room._

_I knew that the manual was worthless now that X.A.N.A. was free of Lyoko, but the science behind it was what intrigued me._

_It often surprised me, reading through the manual, that Jeremie had overlooked many useful things that could have helped in the fight against X.A.N.A., but then again he was busy searching for information on an anti-virus for Aelita so his attention was elsewhere. There were so many little tweaks that would make the scanner program or the virtualization run much smoother._

_Many a night following the funeral I was up late at night researching the material in the manual, and when I say manual I mean both the one that Jeremie had written and the journal that Franz Hopper had left behind. That’s when I found it, the one little facet of Lyoko that Jeremie had overlooked or not found yet. Franz Hopper had built in a safely feature to the Return to the Past. He had designed the program to allow him to go back a few days and get more work done in less time, but once he had gone back an entire month! He quickly implemented a time limit to the program, only within the same day or two._

_I had smiled for the next week as the implications of that sank in. That same week I moved back in to my old room having finally gotten my ability to walk back. I’m not saying that I came to terms with their deaths, I can never do that, but I have accepted that they are gone._

_But that was a small moment in the grand scale of things for as they say ‘life moves on’. And so it did for me. I had inherited Kiwi from Odd, a fact no one else knew. It was several months later, almost the end of the semester, I was out walking Kiwi in the forest when my life was once again turned upside down. As we were walking back to the school, Kiwi’s ‘business’ being finished, I was knocked off my feet by another explosion’s shockwave, this one coming from the school._

_Dropping kiwi’s leash I ran as hard as I could to the edge of the forest, now in retrospect, I wish I hadn’t. There, standing before the flames laughing like a madman was William, at his side was Sissi. But that isn’t what made me sick to my stomach. No, it was the Krabes, the kankrelats, and the Bloks that were destroying the school and killing everyone in sight._

_Retreating into the forest I could only watch in horror as Sissi personally killed Milly and Tamia by chocking the life from them as they struggled in the tentacles of a Scyphozoa._

_I knew that the end had finally come, X.A.N.A. had made his move against humanity and it had been Sissi and William that had given him the ability to do so. Like a floodgate opening in my mind the little things like towers activating and deactivating on their own fell into place when paired with the radio signals. X.A.N.A. had been making a phone call._

_How long had he had possession of William? Was it long enough to build more scanners to bring the monsters from Lyoko? Or was there a set of prototypes that existed somewhere? Could the ones in the factory still be in working condition? There were too many possibilities to know for sure and that alone bothered me._

_My sense of survival kicked in and I began to run, away from what was once Kadic, from the carnage and death. Where I was going I did not know; all I knew was that I had to get away from there._

_That is exactly what I did too; I vanished into the catacombs beneath the city. I knew that I had to hide from William and Sissi and whatever henchmen they might have. I learned quickly how to kill and cook rats. I learned how to steal, how to survive. It was good that I was a fast learner for within that month X.A.N.A. controlled all of France and its military. The United Nations made a stand against him, but they too fell when their own computerized weapons turned against them. With the combined UN and French military he quickly conquered all of Europe. By the end of that year the world was his and all had submitted to his rule._

_As a show of his power X.A.N.A. built a fortress castle on the ruins of the factory, from there he governed his world with a fist of pain and death. All who opposed him died or worse yet vanished into one of his ‘programs’. Even today not much is known about these programs but many rumors abound. Some say that he is doing genetic manipulations to create the perfect human soldier; some say that he is modifying humans to be able to be merged with his Lyoko monsters. Myself, I believe that he uses them as slaves to build his factories where he makes more robots to patrol the streets with their human partners._

_Many humans willing join him and now serve many positions, some are scientists, some soldiers, and some are even administrators. Amazing what selling your soul will get you, a nice house away from the destruction and ruin of some of the larger cities._

_A few, a brave handful, fight back. I lead one of these groups. We raid the food warehouses and distribute the food to those deemed unfit of normal society, whatever that is. These people are the ones that are unable to work for him, they’re either sick in some way or deformed or something else which prevents them from working. Once someone becomes this way they are thrown out of the factories and the dormitories with nothing but the clothes on their backs. All food is given out through cafeterias in the factories and other X.A.N.A. instillations. Without the raids these people would die. Ironically it is from these ranks that our more zealous members come._

_But they are not part of my story, not directly. Over the past five years I have seen too many people die at his hands, I’ve killed too many people to survive. I’m not a martyr, I’m a survivor. I did what needed to be done to survive, we all have. But soon all this will end and be nothing but a memory for me._

_My plan is simple, get a computer powerful enough to compare to the supercomputer in the factory._

_A madman’s plan to be sure, but that’s what I have become, a madman. I have written out every line of code needed on scrap pieces of paper which I carry in a knapsack on my back. As for the computer, there is only one in existence that can run the program I wrote. It is ironically the remains of the original Lyoko computer, buried deep within the tomb of the factory’s lower levels. X.A.N.A. kept what remained of it in tact to use as a blue print to build more scanners to bring bigger monsters in the early days of the war. Now it was largely forgotten, consigned to mothballs and abandoned due to its nuclear power supply which had become unstable a few years ago._

_That is my goal. To break in to the impenetrable fortress that is X.A.N.A.’s castle, avoid Sissi, William and any guards, make my way to the deepest part of the castle, install a program written only on paper, go back to the past and stop all this from happening._

_Simple, right?_

_Regardless of its difficulty, it had to be done. When I said I was the leader of one of the groups I may have been a bit modest. I am the world leader in the rebellion against William, after all, who is better to lead the fight than the one person who had been fighting him most of their life? My plan is to have the entire rebellion attack the castle so that I can sneak in and get to the computer. Suicidal, yes. Crazy, possibly. But this is the only plan that we have; I only pray that it works._

**AaAaA**

“Sir,” Cassidy Jones said as she approached Ulrich as he hunched over a set of blueprints.

“Yes,” he said as he looked at her with bleary eyes that hadn’t seen sleep in many days.

“Sir, the other leaders are asking for confirmation of the battle plan,” she said as she took up position beside him and looked at the prints on the table.

“Many good men and women died to bring us these plans,” Ulrich said into the silence that followed her announcement. “But if this attack goes off as planned then no one will have to die in this war.”

She couldn’t find a response to that for there was none. Being his personal assistant she knew all the details of his plan, she could only hope that it would work.

“Tell them that they will have the plans by night fall, I’m finishing up some minor details.”

“Very good sir,” with that she snapped a quick salute and left him to his devices.

All Ulrich could do was stare once again at the blueprints for X.A.N.A.’s castle and pray that the assault would go off the way it was planned.

Several hours later Ulrich stood before the leaders under his command.

“Tonight is the night,” he said into the silence that met him when he entered. “Before you there are small blueprints and instructions. These are specific to each of your tasks. They must all be completed in order for this to work. Please take a moment to look over what you and your teams must do.”

His announcement was followed by the shuffling of papers and surprised inhalations.

“Are these real?” One man, the leader of a Russian group, asked as he stood. His thick accent almost making the question unintelligible.

“They are,” Ulrich said with a nod before lifting the papers before him up. “This is the only way that we will be able to defeat X.A.N.A. and take back our planet.”

“But this is suicide,” the leader of an American group said as she rose to voice her opinion.

“Yes it is,” Ulrich said. “I won’t mince words, I know that many people will die this night, but that is to be expected. All I need you to do is follow the missions given to you and provide the distraction that I need. Once I am in the castle I only need another ten minutes of distraction to keep them from finding me. After that you are all to retreat and regroup to await further orders.”

“This won’t bring them back, won’t bring her back!” Emily said as she rose to her feet. After the takeover she had taken command of a force of local resistance fighters. Now she was one of Ulrich’s most trusted generals.

“No it won’t,” he said after a moment’s silence that was only filled by nervous shuffling. Everyone knew better than to bring Yumi up for whenever someone did they were usually met with either violence on a bad day or a glare so cold it could freeze the fires of hell if it were a good day. “But it may at least give me the closure that I need if nothing else. I do not plan on returning from this mission without doing some damage to X.A.N.A. and his forces. If I have to die to achieve that then so be it, even if I have to detonate the reactor myself. But this is the last I will hear of this, you are all dismissed, you have your mission now get to it. We move out in four hours.”

With that Ulrich left the room and his stunned generals.

**AaAaA**

Returning to his room he picked up a ragged and charred stuffed animal. Clutching it to his chest he whispered to the night.

“Soon Yumi, soon.”

After taking the much needed moment to clear his head he left his room and the stuffed animal. In light of what he planned to do he felt that he needed to get some food in his stomach, it had been a while since he had eaten.

Entering the makeshift mess hall he was greeted by the muted sound of chatter. He knew that they had heard about their missions by now, but he didn’t care. Making his way to the mess line he waited his turn to get his dinner before finding an empty table tucked away in the corner.

Eating his meal in silence he ignored all those who came up to ask about the mission orders they were given, only replying that they were correct and to talk to their commanders about the details.

Once he was finished he left and headed to the surface. Once there he turned his face toward the sky and took in the sight of the stars clustered above him.

“You know,” a feminine voice said to his right, “this plan of yours is suicide.”

“I know,” he said as he turned to face the speaker, a smile gracing his face as he took in the sight of Yumi. He knew that she was just a figment of his imagination, but it still felt good to look at her again.

“Why? Why do you have to do this?” she asked as she moved to stand beside him and look at the stars.

“It’s the only way to make things right. To change all that has happened and to make the world a better place, and to see you again, for real and not in my mind.”

“Ulrich, you’ll see me when you die, I’m waiting for you in heaven,” she said gently as she placed her hand on his arm. He closed his eyes as he felt her touch on his skin. He never realized how soft her skin was.

“I know; if I fail then that is what will happen. But if I succeed then you will really be here with me and not just a figment. Yumi, I love you more than you could ever know. I will die to get you back if I have to, but I will never just give up.”

When he opened his eyes to see her reaction she was gone, in her place was nothing but the night and the stars.

“Talking to one's self is a sure sign of insanity,” a voice called from behind him. Unlike before this person was no figment.

“Emily,” he said as he turned his attention back to the stars.

“All the troops are ready to go at your notice,” she said when she realized that the time for banter was over.

Closing his eyes once again he took a deep breath before turning to face her.

“Very well, move out.”

She snapped a salute at him before turning and retreating back into the underground base. Ulrich followed her in and made his way to the armory to grab the few items he would need.

**AaAaA**

He silently crept through the halls of the darkened castle, the power having gone out when his troops had taken out the power-grid. Now he wore a pair of night vision goggles as he moved toward the lower levels. He knew the power would be restored shortly and he hoped to get away from the more traveled corridors before then.

As he entered the hallway that would lead him to the lower levels the light snapped back on. Closing his eyes and tearing the goggles from his face he blinked several times to readjust to the light. He had already made it past the majority of the guard stations, now all he had to do was get through the remaining few and to the buried supercomputer.

Stowing the goggles back into his bag he silently made his way down the corridor, keeping to what little shadow there was.

Half an hour later he approached the sealed off factory section. His journey was not without trouble though; there had been a five-man squad of guards that he had to kill. He knew that they were inexperienced when they didn’t even bother to call for help. He assumed that they were counting on the fact that the fortress was impregnable and had become lazy in their training. Yet he knew that they would send more guards to find them when they failed to report in.

Standing before the hermetically sealed doors he pushed thoughts of the guards away as he placed his hand against the door.

Staying that way for a brief moment he pulled himself away from his thoughts and set to work opening the doors. Setting his bag down, he took from it a simple hacker card reader device. He knew that X.A.N.A. didn’t even bother to reinforce his security; after all he was a high-tech computer program, he could stop any computer-based attack. But he never counted on a simple low-tech hacker tool.

Placing the card end in the reader he set the small device to crunching the numbers of the code.

Leaving that to work he returned to his bag and pulled from it a hazmat suit and radiation-counter. He knew there was a good chance that there was radiation on the other side. This whole effort would be for naught if he died before he reached the supercomputer. Donning the suit he now pulled the bag onto his back, waiting for the card reader to finish. Within moments there was a beep and a hiss as the door unsealed itself and began to slide open. Taking the reader in hand he entered the room even as the doors closed behind him and resealed. He returned the small device to his bag and removed a flashlight.

Shining the beam before him he silently made his way through the warren of corridors that had once been the factory. He wandered for almost half an hour before he recognized his surroundings. Once he had his bearings he was able to quickly make his way to the main computer room.

Running a hand over the motorized chair that was still there he marveled at the genius of Dr. Hopper. It appears as though the man had designed the Lyoko computer and equipment to be able to survive any blast short of an Atomic weapon, but then again the bomb X.A.N.A. had used was probably just an incendiary designed for soft targets and had little effect on hardened equipment. Ulrich was thankful for this even as he slipped into the chair that Jeremie had occupied so many times.

Pushing memories away he set about the task before him. He quickly entered the power on key sequence and was pleased to see that the mainframe powered on with a whisper even as the holographic system came to life. Around him lights powered on, at first he was worried that he had been discovered but then he remembered that the factory’s power systems were all run off the supercomputer’s nuclear battery. He was lucky that the system had its own power; otherwise the power draw of his venture would draw X.A.N.A.’s attention too soon.

He had no illusions that this was not registering somewhere, but with the attack he hoped they would mark it off to a bug in the system starting up again.

Shaking that off, he pulled up the command shell and set about creating a new program. Once he had the command line up and the program named, he removed the papers from his bag and set about imputing them one at a time.

**AaAaA**

After too short a time he became aware of the flashing screen in the background. Turning his attention to that he was notified of another presence in the factory. The guards had made it past the door.

Returning his attention to his program he realized that he was almost done, all he needed was another five minutes and he’d be done. Thinking quickly he activated the factory’s robots, or what was left of them, and set them to random patterns, all of their welding tools sparking as they moved in a chaotic symphony that he hoped would buy him the needed time.

Setting back to work once again he did his best to seal off the computer room from the outside but he knew it was futile. Instead he focused on his program, the last and most important lines still had to be written.

After a stressful five minutes he closed the program and typed in the command he hoped would work; execute NewHope.exe.

The screen went blank after he pressed enter. But after a moment to process a message appeared.  
**Coordinates Set.  
** Modified Return to the Past initiated.  
Delay: 180 seconds.  
System deletion in 200 seconds.

With a triumphant grin he spun out of the chair and made his way to the floor hatch even as the message on the screen vanished and the system appeared to power down. Quickly scrambling down the ladder he made it to the Scanner room with time to spare, but not by much. Throwing his bag aside he entered the only open scanner and waited for the doors to close, even as they did so the sound of a small explosion reached him, X.A.N.A.’s forces had entered the computer room.

All he could do now was wait as he was scanned and virtualized. His data stream was then fed directly into the core of the supercomputer and the Return to the Past program. Even as the blinding white light of a Return to the Past surrounded him his last thoughts were of his friends.

**AaAaA**

Ulrich awoke with a start, the sounds around him unfamiliar. Lifting his hands to his face he realized they were scar free and much softer than they used to be. His struggling mind came up with only one conclusion; the Return to the Past had worked. Glancing around him he realized that his theory had been correct; the Return to the Past only sent the person’s consciousness back in time. After all there is nothing in physics to prevent the transmission of data back in time, at least not in quantum physics anyway. With a happy smile he looked down at himself and realized that he was in his 17-year-old body once again, but then his smile disappeared as he glanced over at Odd. It quickly returned when he saw his friend breathing in his sleep, snoring slightly.

While a normal Return to the Past would not return the dead to life his had. He had found yet another loophole in the program that allowed him to actually reset time to the way it was before the Return to the Past. The program that the gang had been using was a stripped down version that Hopper had created after his trip back a month. During that time a small pet of his had died and he had to live through the pain of Aelita losing that pet twice. Following that he rewrote the program to prevent that, but luckily for Ulrich he had written down the entire Return program code in his notes. Using that information Ulrich was able to rewrite the code and add in a few small changes of his own, mainly the deletion of the entire supercomputer operation system and files, preventing X.A.N.A. or his troops from following him. In retrospect he probably should have added a self-destruct command into the program, but too little too late and all that.

With these wonderful thoughts in mind he looked around for a clock. Finding one he glanced at the date, April 10. He had one week to make it all better without his friends or X.A.N.A. knowing. Letting out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding he fell back against his pillows, a smile on his face even as his interrupted sleep reclaimed him. With his smile still in place he fell to sleep with the thought that he’d start fixing the mistakes of the past in the morning.

**AaAaA**

A hand slammed down onto the alarm, silencing it before it could even begin its assigned task of waking the room’s occupants. Rolling out of bed he stood and stretched, taking in the scent of his dorm room. It had been far too long since he had smelt this. Memories assaulted him as he breathed, times and laughter shared. Shaking the now not so distant memories from his head he glanced around for some clean clothes. No reason not to keep with his daily tradition.

Taking his towel and clothes he headed to the showers, thinking how he could begin to affect the changes that he needed to make. He knew that the first thing on his list should be taking care of William and Sissi, but for some reason he couldn’t work up the effort to care about them at the moment. No, instead his mind was on only one person, Yumi. He knew that she had to be the first thing he changed, but that only created the question of how.

He could always walk right up to her and kiss her, but that was too out of character for him. No, he needed a more subtle way and he had to do it soon. Only after he was secure with his relationship with Yumi could he even begin to focus on stopping X.A.N.A. and his minions. But before he talked with Yumi he had to modify the supercomputer and the only way to do that was at the factory.

Stepping out of the shower he dressed and made his way silently through the early morning to the factory. Taking the elevator down he made his way into the main computer room and sat down at the chair he had just vacated five years into a future that no longer existed.

Pulling up a command window he began modifying the scanning program. While it worked well for what it did, there was much that it didn’t scan for. He was going to fix that. He was also adding a subroutine that would send specific alerts to his cell phone. He had to be one-step ahead after all.

After what seemed to be several hours he had finished the modifications, they were so slight that Jeremie would never notice them. He had used the notes left behind in his time to figure out a way to make the scanner work faster and better. While he knew that his knowledge of future events seemed almost contrived there was still so much he didn’t know. But what he did he could and would fix, starting with their X.A.N.A. alert.

Saving the program he pushed the chair away from the terminal and stood, popping his spine as he stretched. Smiling he made his way from the factory. As he reached the outside world he realized that he had only been there about an hour. Smiling again he made his way back to the school in time for breakfast, at least he hoped he was in time. After all it had been almost five years since he had eaten anything.

**AaAaA**

“Ulrich,” a voice called from his right as he entered. Glancing that way he saw all his friends eating, even Yumi. Smiling at Odd, for he had been the one to call him, he made his way to the food line.

Returning several minutes later with a tray full of food that made even Odd look at him funny, he sat down with a shrug at their looks.

“What?” he began, “I’m really hungry today?”

His answer seemed to satisfy them, but for some reason it had come out more as a question than a statement.

“I’ll say,” Yumi said with a smile in his direction, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Odd eat that much.”

“Ha, ha, ha,” Odd said as he rolled his eyes.

Ulrich only smiled as he watched his friends bicker about Odd’s eating habits. Oh how he had missed this interaction. Noticing that Yumi had looked his way at the rather large smile he wore he turned his attention to his breakfast, hoping to hide the blush that had appeared on his cheeks.

“So,” Odd said through a mouth of food, “why are you so happy this morning?”

“No reason,” Ulrich replied back, hoping that they wouldn’t press. After all he really had no idea what to tell them.

“Come on,” Yumi said as she touched his hand where it rested on the table. “There has to be something, I’ve never seen you this happy before.”

“It’s really nothing; I just woke up this morning and realized that this is the first day of the rest of my life. During my shower I thought about how lucky I was to have friends like you guys.”

There was silence for several minutes as they processed this, but it was broken by Odd.

“Who are you and what have you done with the sulky Ulrich?”

Once everyone, even Ulrich, had stopped laughing Yumi spoke up.

“I don’t know Odd, I think I like this Ulrich better.”

Needless to say his face turned red as a stop sign at her words. He just hung his head to hide his embarrassment. Yumi only grinned at his reaction.

Following that it was easier to get into the old routine of breakfast chatting. Once the bell rang however that’s when his smile left him and a realization struck him. A memory of an event that hadn’t happened yet tickled his mind and refused to let him be. Giving in to the idea he told Odd to cover for him and that he had to do something in town. With a promise to be back before lunch he left the school grounds and made his way into the surrounding city.

**AaAaA**

True to his word he returned before lunch, a bag at his side. When asked by Odd what it contained he showed him the materials they would need for the diorama project that had been assigned for history. Odd only grinned and mentioned that he had totally forgotten about that and that he was glad Ulrich had remembered.

Putting the bag in their dorm room he removed a small package before leaving for the cafeteria, slipping the item into his pocket.

Taking a tray he made his way into the lunch line, ignoring when he heard Sissi call his name. To be honest he really didn’t hear her, so it was only natural for him to react when he felt a hand land on his shoulder.

Dropping the tray he grabbed the hand and twisted it over and around, forcing the arm up behind the back and halfway up the shoulder. His other hand rose into a striking position should it be needed. Finally glancing down he came face to face with the fear filled eyes of Sissi.

Releasing her and stepping back he only glared and picked up his tray as he returned to line. It goes without saying that Sissi decided to leave him alone for the remainder of that lunch period. But he knew she wouldn’t be put off for long.

Arriving at his table with the slop that passed for food he looked at his friends.

“What?” he asked at the surprised looks on their faces.

“That’s what we would like to know,” Odd said.

“What was that back there?” Jeremie asked.

“What was what?” Ulrich asked playing dumb.

“The thing with Sissi,” Yumi said from her position beside him.

“That? She just caught me by surprise, that’s all.”

“But Ulrich, we’ve never seen you use any martial arts unless someone was in danger.” Odd said after taking a moment to accept his friend’s explanation.

“So?”

“So? You could have broken her arm! Not saying that she wouldn’t have deserved it what with how she keeps falling all over you.” Yumi said with irritation toward the annoying girl that practically threw herself at Ulrich, literally and figuratively.

“Hmm,” Ulrich said as he watched Yumi, fork held loosely below his chin as it rested on the top of his hand. “Is that jealousy I hear Yumi?”

“What? No, no!” she began even as a blush rose to her cheeks drawing the laughter of her friends. During their laughter Ulrich leaned over to her to whisper in her ear.

“I need to talk you after lunch. Meet me at the tree,” She could only nod in response.

He then pulled away from her and made the excuse that he was finished eating, he rose and left the cafeteria.

Yumi could only stare after him for a few moments. After she caught herself she made her own excuses and left the cafeteria.

Their timely departures caused the others to look at each other and break out laughing once again.

“Should we follow them?” Aelita asked after the laughter had died.

“Nah,” Odd said as he glanced at the half eaten meals their departed friends had left. “Besides they left their meals here and there is no reason to let good food go to waste. Plus, if anything happens we’ll know soon enough.”

With a sigh Aelita conceded that point, but not without having to fight her urge to know what was going on with her friends.

“Aelita,” Jeremie said as he placed a hand on her shoulder. “They’ll tell us what happened should anything happen. Don’t worry about it.”

Giving him a smile she tried to do as he said, but her curiosity refused to rest.

**AaAaA**

“Ulrich?” Yumi called as she reached the tree that Ulrich had once claimed as his. Seeing the boy in question was absent she looked up into the tree. Sure enough he was there, standing with one hand on the trunk and the other at his side. The wind whipping through his hair even as the leaves danced around him in a silent ballet.

“You know, I’ve never stopped to appreciate how beautiful this view really is,” he said with a smile as he looked down at her.

Her heart all but stopped at the smile that was on his face. She had never seen anything like it before. There was so much love radiating from it that she felt she could die happy if only she knew that smile were directed at her.

Ulrich took a moment to watch her.

“I’m glad you came.” He said, “Give me a minute, I’ll be right down.”

She only nodded her reply as she swallowed to wet her dried throat, her tongue unconsciously wetting her lips as well.

With an economy of movement Ulrich seemed to just let go of the tree and freefall the few feet to the ground, landing as though he hadn’t just fallen 10 feet from a tree. She watched as he straightened from the crouch he had adopted to absorb the shock of the landing.

“I’m glad you came,” he said again as he took her hand and pulled the surprised Yumi toward the shade of the tree.

“So,” she began but trailed off as her voice failed her. She had never seen this side of Ulrich before; normally he would blush and pull away if he touched her. Not this time though, now he took her hand and led her to a log sitting in the shade of his tree and sat her down.

“I’m sure you want to know why I asked you to meet me,” he began, cutting off her chance to ask that very question. So in response she only nodded and licked her lips again.

“I need to talk to you, away from the others.”

“What is it? Are you ok?” her fear that he may be in some kind of trouble drove her to speak. He only smiled at her with that heart-melting smile she had seen before.

“I’m fine Yumi. But I wanted to talk about us.”

“Us?” she parroted, confused by the turn of conversation.

“Yes, us. I like you Yumi, I really do. I just want you to know that, whatever may happen in the future I want you to know that I love you.” Here he had to stop, the tears in his eyes needed tending to. His words brought memories of her funeral to mind once again.

“I went into town today to have a talk with your father,” at this her heart stopped. She knew that her father would prevent her from being able to see Ulrich; he had never much cared for the boy. She forced the tears down as she heard him continue to speak.

“I know that you were raised with traditional values and that any suitor had to go through your father first. I also know that William and Theo didn’t do this. He and I had a nice little talk about that to say the least.” He said with a rueful grin to indicate what the ‘little talk’ consisted of.

“Ulrich, I’m sorry for whatever he said to you. I love you too; I have for a long time. But without his approval I can’t see you.” This time she didn’t stop the tears; they flowed freely down her face and soaked into her shirt. Soon she felt strong arms wrap around her and felt another’s shirt absorb the tears.

“Don’t be sorry Yumi, I’m not. He told me very honestly that he was surprised that anyone would have enough respect for him to actually ask for his approval. Oh he was viscous in his questioning but after almost half an hour he gave his blessing. Turns out he actually likes me and thinks I would be good for you.”

He looked down to see her face and saw that she hadn’t heard what he said. Deciding that actions speak louder than words he took action. Gently lifting her chin he kissed her, softly but with a subtle passion that she couldn’t help but notice. Soon her tears had stopped and her clenched fists had made their way around his neck as she returned the kiss just as passionately if not as soft.

He pulled away when the need for air became too overwhelming, leaning over he put his lips to her ear and whispered.

“He gave me his blessing.” He said before he softly kissed her ear, his kisses moving along the side of her face and jaw to once again reclaim her lips. Even as they kissed again he could feel the smile she wore and the heat of the tears she cried. But this time he knew they were tears of joy for he too was shedding them.

Once they had surfaced from this latest kiss he pulled away from her, instantly she missed the warmth he provided. But soon she was distracted by a small box that appeared before her.

“What is it?” she asked as she took it from his proffered hand.

“Open it,” he said with a smile. She did so with trembling hands, inside was a small band with a tiny black gem inlaid into it.

Taking the box from her he removed the ring and held it before her eyes.

“This is a black diamond,” he explained even as the facets caught and reflected the light in all directions. “The band is white gold.”

“Is it… is it an engagement ring?” she asked with a mixture of fear, surprise and hope. Not once did her mind ever fall onto the topic of how he could afford something like this.

“No,” he said with a shake of his head, his smile still in place. “I know that we’re too young for that. This is a promise ring. I promise you that when we are old enough and we’re both ready; I will replace this with a wedding ring. Yumi will you accept this promise, this ring and my love?”

Taking her eyes off the ring she settled them on Ulrich. There in his eyes she could see his soul. He was dead serious about everything he had said. He wanted to marry her; he wanted to love her and only her. In that moment time seemed to stand still, cliché as it sounded. For Yumi her life passed before her eyes, a life with Ulrich beside her, their children, college, jobs. In a flash it was replaced by a series of images of life without him, sure she had the same things but with someone else. In the life without him she felt no happiness; only a longing to have what could have been and could now never be.

In that split second she made up her mind, not that it was too difficult for her.

Throwing her arms around his neck once again she cried softly into his ear one simple word. “Yes.”

With a smile that could warm Paris on the coldest winter’s night he pulled away and placed the ring on her right hand ring finger.

“One day soon,” he said as he kissed her softly once again, “I’ll move that ring to your left hand.”

“I’ll be counting the days,” she said as she wrapped her arms around him again and leaned in for another kiss.

**AaAaA**

Not long after their talk, Ulrich and Yumi had returned to their friends. When they arrived they found Odd, Jeremie and Aelita sitting in the Sun on their bench.

“Hey guys,” Odd said with a wave. Ulrich and Yumi waved back but kept their entwined hands together, a fact that Odd did not miss.

When the couple drew closer they could tell that Odd was bursting at the seams to ask about their hands. Sadly for him Aelita beat him to it.

“So are you a couple now?” she asked with a tilt to her head, hope resting in her eyes.

“Yes,” was Ulrich’s only reply, but this was enough for Aelita to rush forward grab them both in a hug and then pull Yumi off to the side for some girl talk. Ulrich only watched with a smile at the ‘help me’ look on Yumi’s face. But his smile was short lived as Odd and Jeremie surrounded him and began bombarding him with questions of their own.

“What took you so long?” Odd asked as he shook his friend’s hand.

“I was scared, but I realized that you guys were right, she does love me.”

“Why now?” From Jeremie.

“Why not?” Ulrich replied with a shrug.

Silence followed his question as the other two tried to fish around for an appropriate response. Finding none they just shrugged and proceeded to congratulate him.

While Ulrich was getting mauled, Yumi was undergoing a much gentler variation.

“So,” Aelita said as she crossed her arms across her chest and smiled. “What’d he say? I want details!”

Yumi just laughed before recounting the events.

“Well, when I found him he was in his tree, just looking out toward the city. He mentioned how great the view was and then he made his way down to meet me on the ground. He told me that he had spoken to my father today. Needless to say I was worried, my dad has never been very pleased with any of my boyfriends, he said he didn’t like the fact they had no respect for him, he only wanted them to ask his blessing to date me. Apparently Ulrich knew this and had a talk with him. He told me that dad gave him his blessings. Oh, Aelita, I’m so happy!”

Yumi was so caught up in her emotions that she reached forward and pulled Aelita into a hug. The younger girl only smiled as she returned the embrace.

“So tell me about the ring,” Aelita whispered into her ear. Yumi pulled away with a giggle.

“It’s a promise ring, his promise to marry me when we’re both ready. Isn’t it wonderful Aelita?”

“It sure is,” she replied even as Yumi began to fall into a dream world, imaging the events that would happen one day.

“Come on, let’s get back to the others,” Aelita said as she took Yumi’s hand and began to pull her toward the boys.

Yumi could only nod as her eyes locked with those of Ulrich. His smile had returned to his face at the sight of her, and she could feel a similar one breaking across her own face.

They both knew that this had to be the best day of their lives and both were content to just finish it in each other’s company. But alas such was not to be for just as Yumi and Aelita reached the others the school bell rang. Lunch was over.

**AaAaA**

Classes the rest of the day passed in a kaleidoscope of colors and sounds for Ulrich and Yumi, but for the others they seemed to drag on endlessly.

At the end of the day when Yumi had to go home Ulrich was there to offer her his arm and his company. With a wave at their friends they left the school.

Neither spoke for the entire trip, Yumi had her arms wrapped around Ulrich and her head tucked against his neck. She was grateful that they were so close in height, any more of a difference and this would be painful. Ulrich’s arms were wrapped around her as well, lending her what warmth he could in the chilly spring evening.

Upon reaching her house they broke apart, hands still clasped together. Walking her to her door he took her hand and raised it to his lips and placed a tender kiss on the knuckles. Releasing her hand he pulled her into a hug and whispered ‘I love you’ into her ear before pulling away and stepping back. He waited until she had entered her house before he turned to begin the walk back to _Kadic_.

“Ulrich,” her voice stopped him before he could pass her gate. Turning he was just able to catch her before they both fell to the ground. Looking up into her smiling face as she leaned over him, he returned her smile.

“I love you too,” she said as she closed the distance and kissed him, neither caring that she had left her front door open and that her entire family could see them. Neither saw the pleased smile on her father’s face. 

_He makes her so happy._ Her father thought as he watched his only daughter wish her boyfriend good night. _I knew he’d be the one for her._

As the couple pulled away they stared into each other’s eyes again for a moment before sharing another small kiss.

Gently lifting herself off him she helped him stand and brush some of the grass off his back.

“I’ll see you tomorrow Yumi,” he said with a smile as he held her hand once again. Reluctance to leave the other was obvious as they tried to pull away but couldn’t. Realizing that some intervention was needed Mr. Ishiyama stepped to the door to help; after all he had been the same way with Yumi’s mother.

“Yumi, it’s time to come in for dinner. Bid Ulrich good night and come inside. You will after all see him tomorrow at school.”

“Coming daddy,” she said over her shoulder. “Good night Ulrich.”

“Good night my love,” he replied as he placed a gentle kiss on her cheek before escorting her to her front door and her smiling father. After seeing that she was safely in his care Ulrich was finally able to make his way back to the school grounds.

Even as he fell into bed that night he couldn’t help but wonder why it had taken losing her for him to realize his feelings. His only regret now was not having told her he loved her before. With a mental shrug he settled himself for bed; after all he could only change the past so much. Tomorrow he would begin working on saving his friends from X.A.N.A.

He knew beyond a doubt that his dreams would be of Yumi, he only hoped that they could chase away the nightmare of watching his friends die.

**AaAaA**

The next few days passed by without much difference, school, bad food and Sissi throwing herself at Ulrich. In addition to the regular events nothing had been happening with X.A.N.A. and the others were grateful for the break. Ulrich on the other hand had moved to step up his plan to stop X.A.N.A. once and for all. While the break did give him more time with Yumi, it also gave him time to make further plans and backup plans. Having lived in the other timeline had given him the wisdom to have several backup plans just in case.

After sneaking out of the factory after using the supercomputer to run a few simulations he made his way to _Kadic_ where he was going to meet Yumi for a date.

Just as he was leaving the Lyoko Chamber, as he called the computer center, he was met by a stern looking Yumi guarding the bridge from the factory with arms crossed against her chest.

“Yumi!” he said in shock as his mind began processing what she could be doing there. He still had two days left until Sissi and X.A.N.A. tried to kill his friends and he had a lot to set into motion. “What are you doing here?”

“I was just about to ask you the same question,” her voice was like steel, he wondered how she knew he was here. But more important than that, he wondered why she was mad.

“I was just…” he was cut off as she raised one hand and gave him a look. He was about to respond when she spoke.

“Don’t lie to me, I don’t need any lies, I want the truth, why were you messing with the Supercomputer? You’ve been acting strangely for a few days and I want to know why.”

With a sigh he knew he had to tell all or risk losing her and he knew he could never live with that pain a second time.

“Alright,” he said as his shoulders slumped in defeat. “But not here.”

She began to protest until he took her hand in his and began to pull her away from the factory.

“I’ll explain everything once we get back to my room, it’ll be easier that way.”

**AaAaA**

Once they reached the safety of his room he locked the door behind them.

“Sit,” he said as he pointed at his bed, she replied without complaint.

He moved to his closet where he pulled out a small duffle bag. Removing a strange looking device from it he turned it on where it gave off a series of chirps and light flashes before lighting a steady green. With a nod of his head he returned the device to the bag and the bag to the closet.

“That,” he said interrupting Yumi before she could ask the very question he was answering, “was an electronic listening device scanner. I was making sure the room wasn’t bugged.”

“Why?”

“What I have to tell you cannot leave this room, understood? It’s a matter of life and death that you not tell anyone about this.”

Taking a moment to absorb this she swallowed nervously before nodding her head in the affirmative.

“Good,” he said as he sat beside her, a few inches separating them. This confused her since they had been inseparable since they had begun dating.

With an inhale he told her the truth.

“I’m not the Ulrich you knew four days ago.” While he knew this would confuse her he had to ease her into this, it was a lot to take in all at once.

“What? How can you not be Ulrich, I don’t see anything different about you and I know there is no such things as alternate dimensions or pod people despite what Odd says.”

“Do you believe in time travel Yumi?”

This question caught her off guard more than his previous statement.

“Not really, from everything my science teachers have rambled on about I know that it’s impossible. Personally I wouldn’t consider the Returns to be time travel, more like pressing reset on the day.”

They both knew that her answer was rather incorrect, as Jeremie had several times told them that a Return was in fact a form of time travel, however he hadn’t elaborated much beyond that.

“What if I told you that it was possible? That you could only send a person’s consciousness back in time and not their body. That the Returns that we do are in fact time travel and that Jeremie was correct in that assumption.”

“I’d say you were insane and should be committed.”

Ulrich sighed and stood from beside her, moving to look out the window as he continued.

“I was afraid you’d say something like that. Yumi, I’m going to tell you some things that will fly in the face of modern science and seem like the ravings of a madman, but please hear me out. After I’m done, if you never want to see me again I’ll understand, but please hear me out first.”

“Alright,” she said after a few moments of silence wondering why he would think she would never want to see him again.

“My name is Ulrich Stern; the mind in this body is from five years in the future. In two days’ time X.A.N.A. and Sissi will blow up the factory killing you, Odd, Jeremie and Aelita. I’m the only one that will survive because Sissi tried to recruit me to their side. William is X.A.N.A., he has been possessed for a while, but I’m not sure how long. Several months after he kills you he releases all the safeties on the scanners and brings his entire army to our world. He begins by destroying _Kadic_ and then taking over France and the UN. After that the world falls to his power in next to no time.”

She could only stare at him as he finished his abridged version of his history and one possible future. He turned his eyes from her face when he saw the fear rise up in her eyes. He knew she wouldn’t believe him.

“You’re insane,” she said as she backed away from him as far as the bed would allow. He had been expecting this, but it still hurt all the same.

“Yumi, let me explain…”

“No, you stay away from me.” She said as she rose and moved to stand in front of the door, not trying to leave just yet.

“Please, you need to understand that I’m telling you the truth, this will really happen in two days.” He pleaded from across the room, unmoving so he wouldn’t scare her even more.

“How do you know this?” she demanded angrily, her eyes blazing at his lies and delusions. And here she thought this was the man she would be able to spend the rest of her life with, shows just how bad a judge of character she was. “How do I know that what you’re saying isn’t some twisted plot to do something evil to me? How do I know you’re not possessed by X.A.N.A.?”

Even as she was saying this she was working the promise ring he had given her from her finger. As she finished removing it, she threw the object onto his bed. For Ulrich that was the final hurt, he could take her hating him, but the ring had been the end of him. His emotions finally snapped and he cried out his pain, suppressed for far too long.

“BECAUSE I WAS THERE AND LIVED IT ONCE BEFORE!” he roared at her before his strength left him and he collapsed to the floor, wracking sobs over taking him as memories assaulted him.

“Do you know what it’s like to watch the person you love more than anything and your best friends die and not be able to do a thing about it? Do you know what it’s like to have to then go to their funerals knowing that you’ll never be able to tell their parents the real reason they died? Do you know what it’s like to watch those same friends placed in the ground in coffins? No, if you did then you would understand my pain and my reason for what I’ve done.”

She was stunned to hear him yell at her like that and even more so to hear his words and sobs, his voice so quiet she had to struggle to hear it.

“I was there when the factory blew up; I was there at your funeral. Your father gave me your stuffed animal; you used to sleep with it every night. He told me he always knew we belonged together and wished that we had that chance.” His confession was mixed with choking sobs making some words difficult to understand.

Yumi felt her heart break at the pain in his voice. It wasn’t from some madness-inspired delusions; it was the pain of memories of the most tragic events of his life playing before his mind’s eye once again. When he looked up at her she could see the memories passing before his eyes, the pain and sadness she saw there nearly tore her apart. What had she done by taking the ring off?

“Ulrich,” she began as she took a tentative step toward him, hands out in front of her.

“After that I had to live through the world being enslaved by William and Sissi. I led the resistance against them, but every year we were fewer and fewer, either from dying or being betrayed to William’s troops.”

With a sigh he looked up into her eyes again, the tears continuing to fall unheeded.

“Before he blew up _Kadic_ I began to study the manual Jeremie left for Lyoko in addition to Franz Hopper’s journal. There was much in there that Jeremie missed or hadn’t found. During those five years I learned many skills with electronics and weapons. I had to kill to protect myself and others several times. After the destruction of the school I took what remained of the journal and devised a plan to send my mind back to before the attack and prevent it from happening. One of the goals I had set myself was telling you I loved you, I didn’t want to lose you again without telling you how I really felt.”

He took a shuddering breath as he turned his head to the floor once again, his tears falling and soaking into the carpet.

“Now that you know the truth, know how I feel, you’re free to leave. That’s all I asked of you, to hear me out. I know you believe I’m crazy but I’m not. Please, regardless of what you think, don’t tell anyone about this.”

His voice trailed off when he heard the door open and close behind her, confirming his beliefs.

 _Well, that answers that question,_ he thought as he slowly crawled toward his bed and leaned back against it, his hand wrapping around the ring he had given her. He didn’t even flinch as the diamond began to cut into his flesh. He didn’t even try to fight it as the tears began to fall once again; he no longer cared what happened to him. Yumi had left him and he was alone once again. She thought he was crazy and he knew he would never see her or hear her say she loved him again.

With a shuddering sigh he resolved to finish this battle the only way he knew he could with the recent turn of events. His life was meaningless without Yumi. He knew she could and would move on, she’d fall in love and forget about the insane boy she had dated for a few days back in high school. But for him she was his world, without her he had nothing. He would take this fight to X.A.N.A. and give his life for those of his friends and the world, a fate he’d accepted a long time ago, even if they didn’t understand he would still do this final thing for them.

Closing his eyes he hung his head and continued to cry, he didn’t even look up when the door opened and closed again. He just didn’t care anymore.

“Sometimes I wish that I had died with them in the factory,” he whispered to his knees unaware that anyone had heard him.

“Ulrich?” a soft voice called out to him. His head instantly snapped up at the sound.

“Yumi?” he said as he sniffled and struggled to wipe the tears from his blurry eyes.

She smiled at him as she gently sat beside him and raised the soft towel to his face, wiping the tears away.

“What…” he was cut off by her finger on his lips.

“Shhh, just drink this water ok?”

He wordlessly took the offered glass, after a slight hesitation he drank the contents. It could be poisoned for all he knew but he no longer cared.

Once he finished the glass she took it from him and set it aside, the towel continuing to dry his tears.

Ulrich was confused; didn’t she just walk out of his life forever? Judging by her reaction when he told her what was to be he had assumed that she was leaving, after all taking her ring off was a pretty good indicator. Why did she come back? Was it just to taunt and torment him?

“Yumi?” he asked in a whisper as he struggled to suppress the memories.

She just smiled at him as she wrapped her arms around him making him stiffen before he relaxed into her embrace.

“I’m sorry,” she began as she rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.

“For what?” he asked confused by her sudden comfort. “You have every right to react the way you did.”

“No I didn’t. I hardly listened to what you were saying and assumed that you weren’t the man I loved. I should have listened better.”

“Yumi…”

“No Ulrich, when you told me what happened I didn’t believe you. I thought you were insane. But when you broke down I saw your eyes. It wasn’t madness that was in them, it was pain and sadness. The kind that only comes from memories. I’ve seen that look before when my parents remember sad moments in their lives.”

She paused to pull away and look at him again.

“Now, though that pain is gone. Now I only see resignation, no hope, and no future. I should have comforted you, but instead I pushed you away.” She searched his eyes and saw that all she had noticed was still there. She knew that he had come to a decision and she was sure that she wouldn’t like the outcome. “What are you planning?”

“I lost you once before and it tore me apart. Only the knowledge that I could try and change the past kept me going for all those years. The hope that I could see you again and tell you how much I loved you. I have done that but now that you’ve rejected me I only have one thing left to do, take out William and Sissi.”

“What do you mean ‘take out’?” she asked as the fear and dread began to creep into her gut, leaving her cold and scared.

“I mean kill them and prevent them from harming you or the others.”

“But how? Surely you can’t mean on Lyoko!”

His silence was all the answer she needed.

“But what about Sissi? She’s not on Lyoko.”

“I will deal with her in person and then I’ll take out X.A.N.A.”

“Surely there has to be another way, this has to be suicide…” she broke off at her realization. He was planning a suicide mission and it was all her fault.

“No, I won’t let you,” she said as she pulled herself closer to him. He only smiled sadly. He knew now that she didn’t love him, how could she. He was a monster, an aberration of all the laws of physics.

“I have nothing left, you were all I had. Now I have nothing to hold me back.” He said with perfect calm, his tears long since dried, acceptance shining in his eyes.

“No, no, no, no.” she wept as she buried her head in his shoulder, what had she done by leaving?

“I know you don’t really love me,” he said as he gently stroked her hair taking what little comfort it offered.

“I do,” she sobbed. “I do love you, more than anything in the world. That’s why I came back!”

“I would like to believe you Yumi, but I can’t. I want you to know that these last few days have been the best in my life. I will never forget them; I also want you to keep the ring, think of it as a memento.” With that he kissed her head and slowly pulled away, the forsaken ring now resting in her closed palm. When he set his mind to something it was near impossible to change it, he was so stubborn it was scary. Yumi now knew that he had set his mind to the mistaken fact she no longer loved him and he had to die to save her and their friends.

“If you’ll forgive me, I have some things I must prepare. Take care of yourself Yumi.”

When he was far enough he stood and looked down at her. Smiling at her one last time he began to walk to his closet when he was tackled from behind. Turning in midair he landed on his back and took the brunt of the impact, Yumi falling on top of him, her arms around his waist.

“No!” she said as she pressed her weight against him, trying to hold him to the floor. “No, I won’t lose you now that I have you. I’m sorry I over reacted, I’m sorry I walked out, I love you. Why won’t you understand that? Why can’t you see how much you mean to me?”

Ulrich was needless to say shocked at her reaction and the tears falling from her eyes. He had thought that she had returned only to put her own mind at ease before leaving him again. He believed that her words of love not mere moments ago were simply placating, a way to alleviate her own guilt. Now he could see how deeply she meant them. For the first time in the last half hour he was happy. He felt joy and love wash over him even as her tears soaked into his shirt.

Pulling her up so that they were face to face he kissed her gently. Instantly she began to return the kiss, hungry in her need to make him see how much she loved him.

Several minutes later they were lying on Ulrich’s bed cuddling, the ring once again adorning Yumi’s finger. They hadn’t done anything but kiss and reassure the other that they loved them. Now they had to talk. Yumi was the first to break the silence.

“Ulrich?” she said from the circle of his arms, not bothering to lift her head as she listened to his heart beat in time with hers. “You’re not going to go on that mission now are you?”

“No, that’s a contingency plan in case the main one fell through.”

“Oh, and what was your main plan?” she asked as she tilted her head to look him in the eyes.

“You believing me,” he said with a smile as he kissed the top of her head. She smiled and snuggled deeper into his warmth.

“Good.”

“Ulrich,” she said after a few minutes.

“Yeah?” he asked as he turned to look at her.

“I’m glad you didn’t die in that other future.”

“Me too Yumi, me too.”

They were silent for another few moments as they relished in the love they shared.

“So what’s the plan now?” Yumi asked into the silence, yawning a bit from the exhaustion that their conversation had created.

“Same as it was before; stop William and Sissi, only this time without getting killed in the process.” He reassured her with a smile which she returned.

“Good,” she said as her eyes closed and she fell asleep. Ulrich chuckled to himself before he too fell asleep.

**AaAaA**

The sound of a feminine giggle woke him, yet the warmth cradled against his side tried to lure him back to sleep. Try as he might he couldn’t return to his dreams.

“Shhh, Aelita, you’ll wake them,” Jeremie said softly as he tried to pull her away from the sleeping couple. When they had entered the room she had cooed and run over to watch them, taking in the pure bliss on their faces. When Ulrich had rolled over and pulled Yumi closer she couldn’t help but to giggle.

Odd had pulled out his trusty camera and was preparing to take another picture when a voice stopped him.

“Odd, if you want to live to see the next hour I’d not take that picture,” Ulrich’s voice said from his place beside Yumi.

“Damn and I thought you were asleep.” The blonde pouted as he wisely put the camera away.

“I was, but Aelita’s giggling woke me,” Ulrich replied as he rolled over to stare at his friends. “So mind telling me what you’re all doing here?”

“Um, well this _is_ my dorm room,” Odd said with a grin causing Ulrich to roll his eyes.

“Yumi came to my room a few hours ago asking for a towel and a glass, she left without saying why. So I came to find her when I didn’t hear from her after an hour or so.” Aelita explained with a smile at her friends.

“And them?” Ulrich asked with a nod at Jeremie and Odd.

“They just sort of tagged along when I came to see if you knew where Yumi was, she wasn’t answering her cell phone. Plus we needed Odd’s key.”

“I turned it off so Ulrich and I could talk,” came the slightly groggy voice of the girl under discussion.

“Talk?” Odd asked with a leer.

“Yes, talk,” Yumi said as she rolled over to face them, head resting on Ulrich’s chest once again.

“Hey,” he said as he softly kissed her, their friends forgotten for the moment as she returned the kiss with equal softness.

“Hey,” she replied with a smile.

They quickly turned their heads to their friends at the sound of a throat clearing, a blush on both their cheeks.

“Forget about us?” Odd asked as he lowered the camera having captured the kiss for posterity along with the image of Ulrich and Yumi sleeping. An image that he would hide from Ulrich at all costs for fear of reprisal.

“Odd, that picture had better never see the light of day if you want to make it to see a class reunion,” Ulrich warned with a glare.

“Well, he could always put it in a wedding scrapbook,” Yumi said with a smile at Ulrich. Needless to say her comment caught the attention of all present.

“Wedding?” Aelita asked, her eyes shining brightly at the idea.

“Is there something you’re not telling us?” Odd asked with a smirk and raised eyebrow.

“Well,” Yumi began after realizing the implications of her comment, “we do plan to get married someday. He did give me a promise ring after all.”

“Oh, so you were just planning things out then, for the future?” Odd asked his smirk still in place.

“Better to plan now than wait until later,” Ulrich said as he rose from the bed, his motion causing the others to take a step back in fear. They obviously remembered the incident in the cafeteria with Sissi.

Stretching he lifted his arms above his head and winced as he felt vertebrae pop back into place. Once he recovered from the blood rush he extended a hand to Yumi and helped her to rise as well.

“So,” Ulrich began as he put an arm around Yumi’s shoulder and looked at the others. “What’s the plan for today?”

“Well we have that big soccer match tomorrow,” Odd began as he and the others took seats around the room, Ulrich and Yumi sitting back on his bed.

“I remember,” Ulrich said as he thought about the next two days and what they held. He knew that he would have to do all he could to ensure that events came to pass as they did before. The only difference now would have to be his relationship with Yumi, which he was happy to say, was accepted fairly well around campus. Except for Sissi that is. Well that and the fact that Yumi knew what would happen if they failed.

“So that means we’ll have to get in some practice before then, otherwise we’ll lose.”

“Don’t worry Odd,” Ulrich said with a conspiratorial grin at Yumi, “I have a good feeling that we’ll win tomorrow.”

“I’m glad someone is confident, I’m still nervous about it,” Odd replied even as he leaned back and began to pet Kiwi who lay curled in his lap.

“So aside from some soccer practice what else do we have planned?” Ulrich asked. From the silence that greeted him he knew that no one had really given their evening plans much thought. Just as he was about to speak up Yumi interrupted with an idea of her own.

“Hey, after your practice how about we watch a movie at my house? I’m sure my parents will be fine with it.”

“Sounds good to me,” Odd said, “But no romances please. A comedy would be nice though.”

“I’m sure we’ll find something good to watch,” Ulrich said to his friend with a laugh. “Why don’t you call your parents and find out if it’s ok?”

Yumi nodded at the idea even as she stood from his side and began to look through her bag for her phone. Finding it she dialed her parents and waited.

While she was calling the others made plans regarding the practice. They decided that Ulrich and Odd would practice for an hour and a half before they did their movie night. When Yumi returned they had all the plans hammered out.

“They said its ok,” she said with a smile as she sat beside Ulrich, leaning against him as she did. Her statement was met with matching smiles on all faces present. “Oh, they also mentioned getting us some pizza too.”

“Pizza?” Odd asked as his head snapped up. “Why didn’t you say so before?”

With that he leaped from his bed and pulled Ulrich up. Before anyone else could blink he had grabbed both boys’ soccer gear bags and ran from the room to go change, a laughing Ulrich being pulled behind him.

When they were gone and the door had closed the others couldn’t help but laugh at Odd’s antics.

**AaAaA**

The practice was boring, the same old stuff they normally do; ran drills and practiced passing. Following the practice Odd was complaining about how tedious the drills were, Ulrich just smiled and listened, he was secretly glad to be able to do soccer drills once again.

He laughed as he and Odd approached Yumi’s house, Ulrich ringing the bell once they were there.

“Hey,” Yumi said as she opened the door and allowed them entrance, placing a kiss on Ulrich’s cheek as he passed by.

“Hey,” he replied as he wrapped her in his arms for a hug. After a moment and a cleared throat from Odd they broke apart and moved into the living room with the waiting pizza and movie.

Seeing Jeremie and Aelita already snuggling on the couch Ulrich and Yumi took the smaller love seat while odd crashed in the overstuffed chair closest to the television, a slice of pizza in hand and half way eaten.

“Ok, so I was on a Simon Pegg kick when I rented the movies so we have a few. First we have _Shaun of the Dead_ ,” Yumi said as she held up the aforementioned DVD before grabbing the second film. “Secondly we have _Hot Fuzz_.”

“Hmmm,” Odd said from his position closest to the DVD player, “zombies or a buddy-cop movie. Personally I’m all for the zombies.”

“Doesn’t surprise me,” Ulrich said with a chuckle.

“What’s that mean?” Odd asked even as he caught the DVD that Yumi tossed him.

“It means,” Ulrich said as he rose and began to stumble toward Odd, “you have a great need for braiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnns. Uhn.”

“Ha, ha,” he replied as he tossed a pillow at Ulrich who by now had retreated back to Yumi. Jeremie and Aelita were covering up their laughs at the look on Odd’s face as Ulrich turned zombie for a moment.

Pouting a bit he put the DVD into the player and grabbed the remote, hitting play once the menu came up. After that there was little talking as they watched the zombies try to eat Ed and Shaun.

When both movies had finished it was getting close to being curfew for the _Kadic_ boarders. This meant that they had to leave for the night. As the others were gathering their possessions Ulrich and Yumi had retreated to her room for some private time.

Now to a perverted, _cough_ male _cough,_ mind this would mean them making out, but this was not the case. They were in fact talking about the events that would transpire the next day.

“So aside from the soccer match is there really anything big that happens?” Yumi asked as she and Ulrich lay on her bed, wrapped in his arms and cuddled against his chest.

“Later that night there will be a signal sent out from the supercomputer; X.A.N.A. is calling Sissi to tell her to begin their plan. There is also going to be an incident in the cafeteria with her, but we’ll handle that one easily. The only big thing to worry about is the call. It will be quite late, about one in the morning if I remember correctly.”

“So what are we going to do then?” she asked as she glanced up at him, his face lost in thought as he planned their attack.

“Well, what we need to do is help Jeremie with the scan after he finds nothing. Odd will want to go back to the school and sleep but you and I will stay with Jeremie and Aelita and help, well it’ll be more like a nudge.” He answered with a grin as he softly squeezed her, the look on his face conspiratorial.

“Sounds like a plan to me. I only hope that things turn out well tomorrow.”

“Me too Yumi, me too.”

After that the couple broke apart and returned to their friends before all but Yumi left for the school. After all they did have a big soccer match in the morning.

As she closed her door to the sight of her friends and boyfriend vanishing into the night she sent a silent prayer to whichever God was listening that the events Ulrich had lived through once before wouldn’t happen again.

**AaAaA**

“Ulrich, pass the ball,” Odd yelled as he ran down the soccer field toward the goal. Ulrich looked up and nodded before kicking the ball to him.

Odd received the ball and ran; he ran as hard as he could before kicking the ball into the goal. Almost as if in slow motion, the ball passed by the outstretched fingers of the goalie, landing in the net.

“Yes!” Odd shouted as he pumped his fist in victory, that had been the winning goal.

“Good job, Odd,” Ulrich said as he approached to celebrate with his friend.

“Well, it was a team effort,” he replied as he put his arm over Ulrich’s shoulder and began walking toward their bench where their coach, Jim, was waiting with the rest of the team.

“All right guys, good game,” Jim said as Ulrich and Odd joined them. “But don’t let it go to your head. We still have two more teams to beat before we’re in the finals. But don’t worry about that now, go hit the showers.”

As the team began filing into the showers, Ulrich glanced to where Jeremie, Aelita, and Yumi had been watching the game. When he did he saw them wave in acknowledgement, but what caught his attention was when Yumi winked at him, he responded by blowing her a kiss before he and Odd disappeared into the locker rooms.

Jeremie watched the interaction between his friends with amusement, silent as it may have been. Grinning at his friends he pushed his glasses back up onto the bridge of his nose. Storing his laptop into its carrying bag, he slung the strap across his shoulder. Jeremie smoothed the wrinkles out of his turtleneck sweater before running a hand through his hair. His eyes were twinkling in amusement as he watched Yumi head toward the cafeteria, lost in a little world with just Ulrich and her, even with them finally a couple some things never changed.

“Thinking about Ulrich no doubt,” he said with a chuckle as Aelita approached him.

“I’m so glad they finally got together. They are such a perfect couple.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Jeremie said with a grin before offering Aelita his arm. “Shall we go get something to eat my lady?”

“Of course good sir,” she replied with a giggle as she took the proffered arm and began walking toward the cafeteria.

**AaAaA**

After showering and changing into their normal clothes, Odd and Ulrich left the locker room and began heading to the cafeteria. After a game like that they both needed some dinner.

“So, do you think there will be anything edible?” Ulrich asked as they approached, the various smells coming from the stoves of the cafeteria quickly putting the ‘edible’ theory to rest. Even having lived through this once before he couldn’t get past the revulsion the smells caused him.

“Don’t know, but that all depends on your definition of ‘edible’,” Odd replied nonchalantly with a shrug. Ulrich could only sigh and shake his head at his friend, a smile on his face. _Good old Odd_ , he thought as they entered the cafeteria.

Performing a quick once over of the food, Ulrich decided to skip dinner tonight, for some reason the mystery-meat ‘Chicken’ Parmesan just wasn’t doing it for him, again.

“Uhh, I think I’ll get something later, you can have my portion Odd,” Ulrich said as he quickly stepped away from the chicken that appeared to be moving on its own, he didn’t even want to mention the fact that he thought he heard a ‘cluck’ come from it. Why is it that the food seemed to be more active than the student body?

“Really? You don’t know what you’re missing.”

“I’m sure, and honestly I don’t think I want to find out,” Ulrich replied with conviction when he heard a _burp_ come from the chicken on Odd’s plate. He quickly made a hasty retreat to the table that Yumi and the others occupied.

“Hey guys,” Ulrich said as he sat down next to Yumi, placing a kiss on her cheek as he did so.

“Hey,” Yumi replied as she looked up from the salad she had bought from the cafeteria, to Ulrich it looked fairly safe and he once again wondered why he didn’t get a salad instead.

“Good game Ulrich,” Jeremie congratulated even as he continued to type on his laptop.

“Yeah, it was one of the best games I’ve seen in a long time,” Aelita said with a smile.

“Uh, Aelita, it’s only the second game that you’ve seen,” Yumi replied.

“Well, that still makes it the best game I’ve ever seen,” she replied as she stuck her tongue out at Yumi.

All Yumi could do was laugh, transforming it into a shy smile when she saw Ulrich watching her. Even though they were now a couple his looks still got to her. In fact they caused her insides to warm in ways she never thought possible. It made her love him even more with each and every look.

“So, no dinner?” Yumi asked Ulrich to break the romantic tension that fell between them.

“Not hungry,” he began to say, but just as he completed that thought his stomach betrayed him by letting out a growl, cutting off anything else he was going to say.

“Traitor,” he whispered as Yumi broke out into laughter again, his face flushing slightly in embarrassment.

“Here,” she said as she pushed an apple toward him.

“Thanks,” he replied with a blush, both from his stomach’s betrayal and from Yumi’s hand touching his as she passed him the fruit. Ulrich marveled at how the slightest touch of her skin could send electrical pulses racing across his body, a feeling he had no desire to lose.

“Ahhhhh! Isn’t that cute, the _lovebirds_ are sharing food,” a voice laced with bitterness said behind Ulrich. Instantly he went on the defensive as his posture straightened from the partial slouch he had been resting in, hand almost crushing the apple.

“What do you want Sissi?” He said with venom in his voice.

“I just wanted to find out if you’ve decided to give up on _her_ and date a _real_ woman.”

“I am dating a real woman. Yumi is more of a woman then you will ever be.” Ulrich said as he turned hateful eyes upon her, his hand taking Yumi’s and holding it.

Before Sissi could form another reply a new voice broke in, cutting her off.

“If you’re a real woman, I think I’d rather die a bachelor,” Odd said as he placed his tray on the table beside Ulrich who shifted away from the chicken, afraid it might try to grab him.

You could see the fury build up in Sissi, but she controlled her outburst enough to only say one thing before she stormed off, Nicolas and Herve behind her as always.

Before she stormed off, she said one thing and one thing only.

“Be careful what you wish for Odd, it may happen.”

With that she was gone.

Once she had gone and the tension that had been built by her presence had dissipated Ulrich made the effort to return them to some normalcy. “Thanks for the apple Yumi.”

“No problem,” she replied with a smile as she and her friends began to talk about their homework. The incident with Sissi shoved to the back of her mind for the time being.

**AaAaA**

Following dinner the group began to break up, Jeremie and Aelita had latched onto Odd and had dragged him away amid a slurry of protests to study. When Ulrich and Yumi were left alone they both broke out laughing at Odd’s antics, a source of entertainment that never ceased to make them laugh.

Eyes connecting they smiled at the other and began to walk away from campus. Even as he reached over and took her hand in his, Ulrich couldn’t help but think how lucky he was to have Yumi. She was so understanding of all that he had been through and he would forever be thankful to God for bringing her into his life.

Silence reigned as they approached her street, both reluctant to part yet both knowing that they would meet up again in a few hours.

“Well,” Yumi began as they stood in front of her house. “I guess…”

Her words were cut off when Ulrich sealed his lips to hers. She could feel something in his kiss that she hadn’t felt before, there was the longing that she was familiar with but now there was a desperation that had been lacking before. She knew it was due to the events of the next day that would play out shortly, but she was still concerned for him.

“Yumi, I love you,” he said when he pulled away, his kiss leaving them both breathless. “I want you to know that whatever happens tomorrow I will love you forever and beyond.”

“Ulrich?” she began but was cut off when he raised his hand and shook his head.

“Things are different this time Yumes; I know there will be events that I can’t predict. All we can do is prepare for what we know will happen and hope it does. I just wanted you to know how I felt, just in case.”

She knew what he was going to say, it was hanging in the air between them as though he had said it.

She watched him for a moment before wrapping her arms around him and giving him a kiss just as breathtaking as the one he had given her.

“Just in case,” she whispered in his ear as she pulled away.

Breaking the contact between them she turned and ran into the house, a bittersweet smile on her face.

Wearing a similar smile he left and began walking toward the forest near the school. He had to clear his head before he went back to _Kadic_. He did after all have to deal with Odd.

Upon reaching the forest he climbed the small hill that housed his favorite tree. Standing looking out over the city and the Sun’s last light reflecting off the glass of the high rise buildings he lost all track of time until almost two hours later when his phone began to vibrate.

Taking it from his pocket he read the message.

_Time to come in Romeo. - Odd._

He just smiled at that and turned to the school and began walking back. Arriving a few minutes later he and Odd set about doing their math homework for the next day.

**AaAaA**

She was awakened by her phone ringing, glancing at her bedside clock she knew instantly who it was.

“Ulrich,” she said softly as she answered.

“It’s time,” was all he said, yet it was all he had to say. They both knew perfectly well what the true message was; Armageddon had come.

“I’ll be there as soon as I can. I love you Ulrich.”

“I love you too, see you soon.”

The call ended and Yumi folded her phone closed. Returning it to her nightstand she quickly moved to pull on some clothes and head out.

A few minutes later she was dressed and climbing down the drainpipe, black jacket wrapped around her, protecting her from the windy night. Touching down she made for the forest and the factory.

**AaAaA**

Ulrich met her at the elevator as soon as she had touched down on the factory floor. Running into his arms they embraced before kissing. This moment was possibly the last peaceful moment they could ever have together.

“No matter what happens,” Ulrich began as they pulled apart and stared at the other, “I will always love you Yumi.”

“And I you,” she replied with tears in her eyes. He smiled briefly before gently kissing her again. Releasing her and taking her hand he lead her toward the elevator.

The ride down gave them time to compose themselves. Yet they both knew that tonight would change everything.

“About time you showed up,” Odd said with a sleepy grin when the doors opened.

“Shut up Odd,” Ulrich said with a roll of his eyes.

“So what’s going on?” Yumi asked as she and Ulrich joined Jeremie at the supercomputer.

“Apparently nothing,” he said with a frown.

“And that’s a problem how?” Odd asked with a yawn.

“A tower had activated itself, that much I know. Beyond that I’m not sure what happened.”

“Why don’t you talk us through it,” Yumi suggested with a smile, her eyes landing on Ulrich’s for a brief moment before returning to watch Jeremie. In that moment the two shared a silent conversation as his nod confirmed that things were playing out just like they should, so far.

“Ok, I’ll try.” He took a deep breath and began to retell what had apparently happened.

“I received an alarm about an active tower. I came to the factory to make sure, once I confirmed it, I called you guys. Before you guys got here something weird happened, the supercomputer sent out a short-wave radio signal. I wasn’t able to trace it before it shut off, after that the tower deactivated and everything went back to normal.”

“So, no attack?” Odd asked still half asleep.

“Apparently not,” Jeremie replied with a shrug, “I guess you can go back to bed then.”

“Huh, ok Jeremie. But call us if anything weird happens.” With that, Odd left the factory.

Pulling Yumi off to the side Ulrich whispered in her ear. Her nod confirming her ascent to his suggestion. Leaving his side she moved to where Aelita was standing behind Jeremie.

“Aelita? Can I talk to you for a minute?”

“Sure Yumi,” the girl replied with a smile. “I’ll be right back Jeremie.”

He only replied with a grunt as he lost himself in the supercomputer logs for the past hour.

Returning to Ulrich’s side with Aelita in tow, Yumi took his hand before leading the small group to an isolated corner of the room.

“What’s up?” Aelita asked, smile still in place.

“I know what really happened,” Ulrich said in a whisper, squeezing Yumi’s hand for strength.

“You do?” Aelita said as she blinked in confusion.

Ulrich only nodded before he began speaking in hushed tones. A few minutes later he had told Aelita all that he could without giving too much away.

“So Sissi and William are with X.A.N.A.?” she asked.

Once again Ulrich only nodded, he hoped that she would believe him and take the warning to heart.

“I’m not really surprised,” Jeremie said from where he was sitting, fingers still typing away.

“What?” Ulrich and Yumi yelled in unison.

“You happen to be standing in a corner with very good resonance,” Jeremie said with a grin as he finally looked up at them. “I may be engrossed in the supercomputer, but I’m not deaf.”

“So, they’re going to blow us all up are they?” he asked as he pushed away from the terminal and stood, stretching as he did.

“That is their plan, unless it changed. With you all knowing what could happen it very well may have changed, after all Greenberger and Svozil’s theory about Quantum Theory does technically apply to this situation. But I’m hoping that the Novikov self-consistency principle has more bearing on upcoming events.” Ulrich explained as he leaned against the wall, Yumi tucked under his arm.

“Greenberger? Svozil? Novikov? I wasn’t aware that you knew who they were.” Jeremie said in surprise. Yumi only smiled as she watched the exchange between them.

“Well, I did have five years to learn all about physics after the original explosion. I did need all that background to get back here. You forget Jeremie that I have several years’ worth of knowledge stored up here.” He said as he tapped his forehead.

“I guess you do. I’m not even going to begin to ask how you managed to travel back in time five years and how we can be alive if we died, at least not now. Instead we need to come up with a plan to stop X.A.N.A.’s plan.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Aelita said with a smile at Jeremie, a smile that he shyly returned.

“Well then, let’s start talking,” Yumi said as she pushed off from Ulrich and clapped her hands in finality. He could only smile as he moved to join her in the planning.

**AaAaA**

As they approached her house, Yumi slowed down and eventually brought Ulrich to a stop.

“Do you really think things will be different this time?”

He smiled at her before pulling her into his arms.

“I can only hope so, I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you a second time.”

“Don’t worry; you won’t have to find out. If anything happens to you it will happen to me. I won’t let you die alone.”

Tightening his hold on her for a brief moment he released her and watched as she climbed her drainpipe to her room.

As she was climbing, his eyes were on her progress but his mind was on the events of later in the day. As she turned to wave him goodnight he quickly turned his frown to a smile before he returned the wave.

With Yumi safely in her room he began to head back toward _Kadic_ , even with the plans that were made he knew things could still go wrong. Knowing this, he had to come up with a backup plan just in case. Wracking his brain the entire trip back he finally came up with an idea that may work. But for this he needed to implement it himself. He couldn’t risk the others knowing about it.

Diverting away from the school he headed back to the factory, he had a long night ahead of him.

**AaAaA**

Silently he slipped into bed, the clock on the desk read 05:30. If he was lucky he could get a few hours sleep before the alarm rang.

The sound of a deep and penetrating whine broke into his slumber. Groggily opening his eyes he knew it was that hated piece of equipment called the alarm clock. Pulling himself from the bed he moved to turn it off.

Yawning and stretching he reached for his towel and some clean clothing before heading to the showers.

After finishing his revitalizing, yet too short, shower he made his way back to his room. Upon arriving he found that Odd was still asleep. With a sigh he walked to the comatose Odd and began shaking him.

“Odd, time to get up, you need to take a shower before we can go to breakfast.”

Whether it be the shaking or the mention of food, Odd sprang out of bed and grabbed his own towel and clothes. Before Ulrich could blink his roommate was gone.

Giving a small chuckle, Ulrich set about gathering everything he’d need for the day; wallet, keys, cell phone, and schoolbooks. All were stored away in pockets or book bag.

By the time he’d finished looking for his ever-elusive math book, even the second time around he still had no idea where the damned thing went, Odd had returned from the showers.

“You ready to go Odd?” Ulrich asked as he put his book in his backpack.

“Just let me get my shoes on,” the blond replied even as he was pulling his sneakers on. “There, ready to go.”

Giving his friend a pat on the shoulder, Ulrich led the way out the door to the cafeteria.

**AaAaA**

Following breakfast and a rather (freakishly surprising) edible meal, Ulrich and Yumi followed Odd from the Cafeteria and into the courtyard for a little relaxing and sun before classes began. Aelita and Jeremie were already stationed on their bench, having left to make sure no one else took it since they skipped eating.

Ulrich and Yumi smiled at each other as they listened to Odd go on and on about his newest song.

“…It’ll have a lot of drum beats mixed in with some digital synth and …”

Shaking their heads they exchanged a silent signal as they walked behind him. Acknowledging the other they slowed their walk until Odd was several feet ahead of them. Once that was completed they took off running at an angle, trying to beat Odd to the bench.

After arriving at the bench ahead of their friend, Ulrich and Yumi sat down as they tried to catch their breath. It was rather difficult to do considering they were still laughing like they had been as they pulled their little trick on Odd.

"Now that," Yumi began as she struggled to get her breath, the giggles preventing the completion of the action.

"Was still funny, no matter how many times it happens," Ulrich finished as he too fought to stop laughing even as they leaned against the other for support, arms around the other to help support them.

"Did you two ditch Odd again?" Jeremie asked without looking up from his laptop.

"Maybe," they said in unison which had the effect of setting them laughing again.

"Hey Einstein," Odd said as he reached the bench but stopped when he noticed Ulrich and Yumi. Turning to look behind him he realized that he wasn't imagining them in front of him as they weren't behind him.

"Hey!" he exclaimed with a pout as he realized what they had done. "That’s not funny."

"Yes it is," Ulrich said with a glance at Yumi that sent the two back into a fit of laughter.

"Ya know, one day I'll be gone, and then you won't have me around to make fun of," Odd protested as he crossed his arms across his chest in mock irritation.

"Odd," Ulrich said as he rose to comfort Odd as Yumi was still laughing. "That’s not true, nothing will ever happen to you or anyone else as long as I'm here."

"Yeah, same here," Yumi said as she too comforted Odd, her hand accidentally covering Ulrich's as she placed it on Odd's shoulder.

Before anyone could say anything into the silence that followed there was a beeping coming from Jeremie’s computer.

Quickly switching to the window he needed he announced what everyone already knew.

“X.A.N.A.”

Silent looks passed between four of the five, signaling that what they had been expecting had come to pass. The end was on them.

Without a word all five of them turned and began to make their way toward the building that housed the boiler room and the path to the factory that lay within.

Before they could reach the safety of the school Ulrich was stopped by Sissi.

“Ulrich, my father wanted me to tell you something.”

“What is it?” he asked with a sigh as he saw the others stop to wait, he didn’t want to do this again but he had to play it out just like before.

“It’s not something for _them_ to hear,” Sissi replied with a nod in the gang’s direction.

“Go on without me, I’ll meet you guys in Jeremie’s room. Make sure that you guys start on that project we have to do.”

His answer was a nod from his friends as they took off and left him to face Sissi alone, Yumi lingering longer than the others before she too ran off.

Once they were gone and he had stolen one last look at Yumi’s disappearing back, he turned to face Sissi as he crossed his arms.

“Ok, they’re gone, what do you want?” he asked.

“Ulrich dear, you don’t need to take that tone with me, your friends are gone now, you don’t need to pretend to be in love with _her_ , it’s just us.” She said as she moved to his side and slid her arm through his. He pulled his arm away from her and took a step back.

“I’m not pretending anything, Sissi, I _am_ with Yumi. I will never be with you even if you were the last person on this planet. Oh, just so you know I really don’t like you.” With that he turned to walk away before her voice stopped him short.

“I know about Lyoko, Ulrich.” She said with a smirk. “I know all about Aelita too.”

He sighed silently when he heard this. Would she ever give up?

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Sissi. Now if you’ll excuse me I have a project to work on.” He turned to leave only to be stopped by her hand on his shoulder, her touch making his skin crawl.

“Oh, I know all about you and your friends,” she began as she started to circle him like a vulture. “I know that you aren’t going to Jeremie’s room, you’re going to the factory to stop X.A.N.A., but I can tell you it’s not going to work. You can’t stop him, he will rule the world and you can’t stop it.”

“Are you crazy? To side with him? Do you know what he’ll do to the world if he gets free?” he asked in ‘shock’ as he stared at her.

“I have never felt saner in my life. You know that you will all die once he comes to power, some sooner than others.” This time there was a victorious smirk on her face, a smirk that grew as she spoke again. “Join us Ulrich, rule the world with us. It’s the only way you’ll survive you know.”

He ignored the last part as the threat of ‘sooner than others’ rang through his head once again.

“What do you mean by that?” he asked as the fear swept over him once again, he was no longer just playing along. All his worries and concerns for the plan were coming to the front of his mind and he had no way to be certain that what happened before wasn’t going to change.

“Hmm? Do you mean the promise of death? Well that’s simple Ulrich dear, even as your friends approach the factory they are approaching their death. You see X.A.N.A. is free now. He doesn’t need the supercomputer any more. As we speak your friends are walking into a giant bomb, well more like an incinerator, but you get the idea.”

She stopped to throw another victorious look at him.

“You can try to call them, but it won’t work. All cell phone service has been terminated. If you want to save them you’d better start running, once they hit the scanner room it’s all over.”

Ulrich didn’t even wait to hear the sound of her laughter or to see another person appear beside her.

“You did well my love,” William said as he put his arm around her and gave her a kiss on the temple.

“Thank you,” she said with a smile as she returned the kiss. “Do you think he’ll make it?”

“No, he’ll get there in time to watch them die.” He replied with a hollow laugh.

“I love you, Sissi,” he said as he leaned down to capture her lips with his own.

“I love you too,” she said just before their lips connected.

**AaAaA**

As soon as he was out of sight he changed direction and headed to Jeremie’s room. Knocking on the door he was admitted by Yumi.

Entering he gave the others a nod, smiling at the confused look on Odd’s face.

“How long do we have?” he asked Jeremie as he settled next to Yumi on the bed.

“About three minutes,” the blonde replied. “I’ve locked down the Computer room and elevator. The supercomputer is as sealed off as I can get it.”

“Good,” Ulrich replied with a nod. Pulling a piece of paper from his pocket he read over it before calling out to Jeremie.

“Hey Jeremie, pull up a program called ‘exmachina.exe’ and run it.”

“Why?” he asked even as he was pulling the program up on the remote link with the supercomputer.

“Just a little going away present for X.A.N.A. and Sissi.” Ulrich replied with a sadistic grin. Jeremie only nodded as he hit enter to execute the program. A few seconds later there was a confirmation that it had executed successfully.

“It’s done. Show time guys,” he said as he terminated the connection with the supercomputer and closed the lid of his laptop.

“What are you guys talking about? Someone tell me!” Odd whined.

Ulrich only smiled as he used his foot to turn the other blonde’s chair toward the window.

“Watch,” was his only comment.

Odd pouted for a moment before his eyes grew wide at a flash of light from the distance. Soon that was followed by a mushroom cloud of smoke and fire followed a few seconds later by a shockwave that rattled the windows and threatened to break them. In the distance the sound of car alarms could be heard.

Even as the reverberations died out Ulrich increased his grip on Yumi and pulled her into his lap, his arms tightening around her in protection and remembrance of the alternate outcome of this event.

“What the hell was that?” Odd yelled as he jumped to his feet and faced the others.

“The future being changed,” Ulrich said from where he had his head buried against Yumi’s neck. For her part she could only stroke his back as tears soaked into her skin. She knew what he was remembering and words could not describe the joy she felt in knowing that his tears were more from joy at them still being alive than from remembering the incident that happened in the other timeline.

“What?” Odd said in utter confusion as he sank into his chair and looked at his friend as though he didn’t even know him.

“Let me try to explain,” Jeremie said after a few moments of silence where he figured that Ulrich just wanted to take these few moments and thank God that his friends were still alive.

For the next couple of minutes Jeremie and Aelita explained the events of the day as Ulrich had explained the night before. Yumi, now the one holding Ulrich, continued to comfort him even as she nodded at various parts of the story.

“So, we died?” Odd asked once the retelling had finished. At Jeremie’s nod he went on.

“We died, X.A.N.A. took over the world, Ulrich is really from five years in the future, and now that we have changed events we have to stop Sissi and William who is actually X.A.N.A.”

“That pretty much sums it up,” Jeremie said.

“Wow, I guess that explains a lot over the last few days then. Ulrich’s hostility toward Sissi as well as the incident in the cafeteria.”

“So what do we do now?” Odd asked into the silence that followed.

“Nothing,” Ulrich said from his spot leaning against Yumi’s shoulder. Turning to look at his friend he stood before crossing to them and hugging each one of them.

Releasing them he stood in the middle of the room, his eyes traveling from each face to the next. Finally his eyes landed on Yumi as she smiled at him, he could feel his own smile appear on his face, small though it was it was still there.

“I’m so glad I didn’t lose you guys again,” he said before clearing his throat. Holding up his hand for silence he cleared his throat again before speaking.

“Now that we have that out of the way it’s time to begin the next phase of the plan.”

“And what would that be?” Aelita asked as she leaned against Jeremie, the emotions in the room having taken their toll on her as well.

“Nothing. We do nothing different. We continue on as though we know nothing about the explosion.” He held up his hand to forestall any comments. “The program I had Jeremie run was something I’d been working on for years. A little gift for X.A.N.A. and Sissi, a going away present if you will. It’s really a combination of several things.”

Here he had to stop for the grin that split his face threatened to break into maniacal laughter. Losing the battle with himself he let the laughter go as he thought about the program they’d just run.

Reigning himself in he took a few calming breathes amongst the worried looks on his friends’ faces.

“The program,” he said once he was able to breathe again, “Is a combination of the marabunta, the ghosts and a variation of the virus that afflicts Aelita.”

“WHAT?” Broke free from the throat of the others as they rose from their seats in shock.

With a grin Ulrich motioned them silent before explaining.

“In Hopper’s notes he explained what X.A.N.A. was designed for. He was to be a polymorphic anti-intrusion firewall.” At Odd’s look he dumbed it down. “He was designed to keep people out of Lyoko.”

“Oh,” Odd said after a moment.

“The virus is a variation of one of the five basics that Hopper programmed in. X.A.N.A. to be a counter-measure against any military intrusion. Originally the military had wanted Hopper to build them a program capable of bypassing any security system. When he learned that they were going to use his program on the people of France he created X.A.N.A. to prevent that. Lyoko just happened to be the test bed for all his research and experiments.”

“Wow,” Odd said as he stared at Ulrich.

“I know, it’s a lot of information to take in,” he replied with a grin.

“I didn’t know you knew such big words!” Odd said as his face broke out into a grin. Ulrich could only roll his eyes and smile.

“Could you explain more about this program?” Jeremie asked into the silence that followed.

Ulrich only shrugged before trying his best to explain.

“Well, it’s really simple. The Marabunta does exactly what it did before, attacks X.A.N.A. created objects. The Ghost portion allows it to be manifested here in the real world. Meaning if any Krabes got free the marabunta would be able to infect them here. As for the virus that’s a little payback for Aelita.” He finished with a smile and a shrug.

“What will that do to X.A.N.A.?” Aelita asked once Ulrich had finished.

“Nothing really. It’s just to prevent him from sending any creatures here into our world. It’ll slow him down for a bit. Hopefully enough time for us to shut him down.”

“You mentioned that you used a version of Aelita’s virus. Does that mean you can make an anti-virus for her?” Yumi asked after pondering his words.

“No,” he said sadly. “All I can do is give you the base code for the virus. X.A.N.A. modified it immensely. But with the base code you’ll have the anti-virus in no time.”

“You know,” Odd said into the silence that was beginning to become too prevalent. “We should probably get to work on that anti-virus. I don’t know about you but the sooner we get rid of X.A.N.A. the better.”

“For once I have to agree with Odd,” Jeremie said as he rose and moved to grab his laptop from the desk.

Laughing, Ulrich pulled Yumi to his side before they both fell onto Jeremie’s bed. Once they hit the mattress they made themselves comfortable as they waited for the fallout from the factory explosion to begin, both literally and figuratively.

**AaAaA**

The next few hours were hectic to say the least. There were fire trucks and police cars all over the factory grounds. A few officers even showed up at _Kadic_ to ask questions. Upon finding out that there was no one who knew anything about the old factory most left to help with the crowd control. Needless to say the Lyoko gang had decided that discretion was the better part of valor and were keeping their mouths shut.

Ulrich and Odd were making their way to the vending machine when they were stopped by the sound of a gasp behind them. Turning they saw Sissi staring at them in shock.

“You,” she said as she pointed at Odd, “you’re supposed to be dead. I saw you running to the factory before it blew up.”

“What are you talking about Sissi?” Ulrich asked as he looked over at Odd in confusion. “We went to Jeremie’s room, just like I told you we were. We’ve never been to that old factory.”

“But…I thought …” she was unable to complete her thought as one of the remaining officers approached her. Apparently he had been asking Jim a few questions about the factory and had overheard Sissi’s comments regarding the explosion.

“Miss, I’m going to need you to come with me for a bit. I have a few questions for you about the old factory.”

With that said he dragged her off to her father’s office so they could all talk.

“Wow, I did not see that coming,” Odd said once they were gone.

“Tell me about it,” Ulrich said as he shrugged and turned his attention back to the vending machine and what drinks he and Yumi wanted. Finally making his selections, he and Odd returned to Jeremie’s room and recounted the incident with Sissi.

“Well, that takes care of her for a while,” Ulrich said as he popped the top of his soda. “Now we just need to focus on taking care of William.”

“And how are we planning on doing that?” Yumi asked from where she was curled into Ulrich’s side. A smile was on her face as she watched him frown for a moment before replying. She found that she liked this new Ulrich. The time he had been in the future had taken his hidden ability to lead and honed it into a skill that would serve him for years to come. While at one point in time she had been the leader she was more than happy to turn that role over to someone that was better suited for it. After all who was better to lead them than the man who had led the resistance in the alternate future? 

She saw his frown turn into a smirk before he answered, but when he did he couldn’t stop the laughter from seeping into his voice.

“The same way X.A.N.A. took control of him, we’ll use a ghost.”

He couldn’t help but laugh at the looks on their faces. They all sat there with their mouths hanging open. Odd had even stopped in the middle of lifting his soda to his lips and was now just staring at him like he was nuts.

“Jeremie, I know that you had once played around with the ability to create ghosts. If we can create a ghost to take over William and negate the one that X.A.N.A. is using we’ll get him back without any harm.”

“And if that doesn’t work?” Aelita asked after a moment to consider his thinking, while it was fairly sound it left a huge gaping _but_ at the end.

“If that doesn’t work then we’ll have to come up with another plan. And if all else fails I’ll simply have to arrange for William to have an accident.”

“Accident?” Odd asked into the silence that followed that last comment.

“Kill him,” Yumi whispered from where she now sat on the edge of the bed, eyes narrowed as she watched Ulrich. He knew that none of them liked that idea but he knew that if they were going to save the world and prevent X.A.N.A. from gaining any power they must do whatever it took.

“Well then,” Jeremie began with a clap of his hands, startling the other four. “Let’s not let that happen. Let’s get started on that ghost shall we?”

The others all nodded before circling around him at the monitor. Yumi pulled Ulrich aside before either could join.

“Did you really mean that? That we’d kill William if necessary?”

“No,” he said before looking her in the eyes. “I meant that _I_ would kill him. I want you guys to have no part in that should it come to it. If anyone will take the fall it’ll be me.”

“But,” she began only to be cut off when he pulled her to him and buried his face in her hair.

“No Yumi, I won’t have any of you become killers. I’ve killed before, I’m not proud of it but it was war. If I have to kill William to prevent that war from happening I will. But none of you will be involved, I don’t want your hands stained with blood like mine are.”

“Then we won’t let that happen.” Yumi said emphatically from where she rested against his chest, her arms coming up to circle him and squeeze him to her.

“You know, as touching as this scene is we really could use your help here soldier boy,” Odd said once Ulrich and Yumi had settled into a comfortable silence wrapped in the other’s arms.

“Alright,” Ulrich said with a sigh as he released Yumi and led them to the computer.

**AaAaA**

In the end it turned out to be a relatively simple matter to create a ghost, once they had the basis for the ones X.A.N.A. used that is. While Ulrich wasn’t sure where the ghost program came from he was able to help dig through the files on the supercomputer to find the baseline specs.

Once they had those Jeremie was able to write a version that would attack and destroy the base code itself.

Now came the tricky part, using it.

“So how do we do this?” Odd asked once the thumb drive with the program on it was ready. Now it lay on the desk before them all as they tried to figure out how to infect William with it.

“Well, to be honest someone is going to have to infect him directly with the drive.” Jeremie said as he wiped the dirt from his glasses.

“Meaning?” Ulrich probed as he studied the small drive sitting before him.

“Meaning that someone must shove the drive into William’s skin and keep it there for a few seconds as the program downloads. That’s it. After that the ghost will begin to attack anything X.A.N.A. based and hopefully free William.”

“Okay Einstein, so how are we going to do that? It’s not like he’s going to just stand there while we shove it into him.” Odd said with a frown on his face, “and how is shoving it into him going to work?”

“I don’t know,” Jeremie replied into the silence that followed Odd’s question. “As for how it will transfer that’s simple, the human body is made up of energy, that’s how X.A.N.A. infects people to begin with. He shoves their energy aside and uses his instead. So the thumb drive just needs to be held against his skin long enough for the X.A.N.A. energy to grab the data and transfer it to William, the question of how to do _that_ still remains.”

They were all silent as they tried to figure out how to go about infecting him. It was only broken minutes later when Yumi’s head shot up from where it had rested on Ulrich’s shoulder.

“I have an idea,” she said. From the look on her face Ulrich was sure he wouldn’t like it.

**AaAaA**

He was right, he didn’t like it at all, in fact it was easy to say that Ulrich was greatly displeased with her solution, a fact he was more than happy to share.

“No, and that’s final!” He stormed at the girl now standing across from him.

“Ulrich, it’s the only way,” she said as she glared at him. While she did appreciate his desire to protect her, she didn’t need him to be so possessive. If this was the only way then they had to use it, and so far it appeared to be the only one.

“No, I’m not going to let you kiss him.”

“It seems to me that there really is no other way,” Jeremie added as the two lovers continued to glare at each other.

“Stay out of this,” Ulrich growled without taking his eyes from Yumi. But this too quickly changed as he began to pace the room, visibly upset.

“Ulrich,” she said after a moment of watching him, her voice gentle as she slowly approached him. Taking his arms in her hands she turned him to face her, pulling him into a hug that he quickly returned.

“Yumi,” he said into her shoulder, “I don’t want you to do this. There’s too much risk. He could hurt you if it doesn’t work, or worse.”

“I know,” she soothed as she rubbed his back. “I know, but I have to. I’m the only one who can. He did have a crush on me so why not use that to our advantage?”

“We don’t even know how much of William is still in control, for all we know X.A.N.A. could have completely suppressed or deleted him; beside he probably thinks you’re dead along with the others.”

“Can we really not try?” She continued as her hands kept on rubbing his back. Slowly she could feel the tension leave him as he finally gave in.

“Alright,” he said in a voice barely above a whisper. Yumi would never have heard it if his mouth hadn’t been almost on her ear. Despite the situation, she couldn’t help it as a shiver of pleasure ran through her as his warm breath tickled her ear.

Pulling away to look him in the eye, she could only smile gently as he sighed before pulling her against him once again.

“Alright,” she repeated, nodding at the others to let them know the plan was a go. Now all they had to do was figure out when and where to do it.

**AaAaA**

Following much reluctance on Ulrich’s part they finally agreed that eight days from present, right after school, would be the best time to strike. It still left them plenty of time to prepare, time they would definitely need.

Having worked out the shaky semblance of a plan, the group proceeded to implement it. Step one was observation of the target. Day-in and day-out they observed William’s daily pattern for a week. After that point they were fairly sure they had his routine down. Following this realization was the most important part, infecting him, also known as step two.

A short time later all members of the team were ready to strike. It had been decided that they would strike on a Friday, the day the campus was the quietest as most students visited with friends or family for the weekend if they could.

After confirming that Sissy and her minions were out of the way, they were ready. Setting the trap for the section of the courtyard closest to the nurse’s office, they waited.

Not long after setting themselves up William arrived, sauntered would be a better term to use considering his arrogance. Regardless of that, he arrived and their plan shifted into motion the moment that Yumi stepped out from behind a pillar into his path.

“Yumi,” he said with a smirk as he slowed to a stop a few feet from her. “Come to beg for your life? I … may be persuaded to spare it.”

“I came to tell you that you were right,” she began as she hung her head before him. “I finally realized that you and X.A.N.A. will win and there is no reason to fight anymore.”

“I see,” he said as he took a few steps closer to her. “Having realized the futility of fighting what do you offer in return for your life?”

“The only thing I have to offer,” she said as she closed the distance between them, one hand coming to rest on his chest, “myself.”

At that moment she pulled him down to her and began to kiss him. He was surprised at first, but the small part that was William broke to the surface and began to return the kiss. However just as he did so a burning, ripping pain tore through his body. He shoved Yumi away from him, as she hit the ground he reached a hand to his chest and the small silver object protruding from it, held there by the energy that was X.A.N.A. Just as he reached to remove it he found that he had lost all control of his body and that darkness had begun to creep into his vision even as the ground rose up to meet him.

**AaAaA**

“Well,” Odd began as he stared down at the bound William. “That was easier than I expected.”

“Easy for you to say,” Yumi replied as she took another sip of mouthwash and swished it around in her mouth before spitting it into the garbage can. She followed that with another mint before she finished her reply. “You didn’t have to kiss him. Yuck, he tasted… gross.”

“Gross? Is that really the best you can do?” Odd replied with a snort.

“Words fail me at how disgusting it was,” Yumi replied as she leaned back into Ulrich as they rested on the couch opposite the one William was on. “It tasted like… failure.”

Ulrich could only smile as he tightened his arms around her, his face turned serious after a moment.

“Now we need to find out if it is William again.”

“How do we do that Rambo?” Odd asked as he crossed his arms and looked at his rather scary friend. Not once did the blonde even consider the fact that his friend didn’t like the new nickname, a good thing for Odd since Ulrich did indeed like the nickname.

“Wait until he wakes up, once he does he’ll have a few telltale signs that he’s been purged of X.A.N.A.’s influence.”

“Care to share what those signs are?” Jeremie asked from his spot at the desk chair they had brought over, laptop humming away in the background as it analyzed what remained of the supercomputer.

“No.”

“No?” Aelita asked in confusion.

“That’s right, no. For all we know he isn’t asleep anymore. As soon as I tell what the signs are he’ll ‘pretend’ to wake up and then manifest those same signs. He’ll fool us and we won’t even know it. So, no, I won’t be telling you the signs.”

There was silence in the room for a minute before Yumi broke it.

“Makes sense to me,” she said with a smile and a small laugh.

“I never would have thought of that,” Odd said as he scratched his chin.

“If you had then the world truly would have been coming to an end,” Ulrich replied with a laugh of his own. The first that any of them could remember since the future Ulrich arrived.

“So, then we wait?” Jeremie asked as he turned his gaze to William.

“We wait,” Ulrich replied with a nod.

**AaAaA**

William’s moans of pain were the first indicator that he was waking; the second was the intense screams of agony.

Fortunately the group had decided that using the Hermitage would be a better idea than the dorm room. The main reason for that was that Ulrich knew that there would be screaming involved. That was one of many things they didn’t want to try to explain to Jim.

“Well,” Ulrich said as he shoved his hands over his ears, the others following suit. “William is well on his way to being fully recovered.”

“What?” Odd yelled as he tried to hear over the screams.

Gesturing outside, Ulrich led the group out and repeated his sentence.

“He is well on his way to recovery. He isn’t possessed anymore.” 

“How do you know?” Aelita asked as she glanced in the window to check on the still screaming William, the sounds slightly deadened where they were standing.

“In the future several people were severed from X.A.N.A. possession. They had been under his control for months, even years in some cases. One of the first things to happen was the feedback of all the pain and suffering they caused while under X.A.N.A.’s control. X.A.N.A. had been able to suppress the memories and emotions, but they saw everything that their bodies did. Once his control was gone they came flooding back. Several people committed suicide, unable to live with what they had done, many others merely became catatonic. Their minds had simply shut down to protect them, once that had happened all we could do was provide for their basic needs, they were like the living dead in that state.”

“That still doesn’t completely answer the question,” Jeremie pointed out.

With a sigh Ulrich continued.

“The emotional backlash can’t be faked by X.A.N.A., only a person free of his influence can experience it, only a full human can feel the remorse and pain.”

“So, what happens now?” Yumi asked as she stood next to Ulrich, her hand on his shoulder.

“Soon the screams will pass. Once that happens we have to keep him from killing himself. After that hurdle we can only help him adapt to life again, while he didn’t commit the same atrocities that those in the future had, William has still done some bad stuff. We need to be there for him as his friends, help him see that he isn’t responsible.”

“We have a long road ahead of us then,” Jeremie said with a sigh as he removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes.

At this point the screaming in the house behind them stopped. At once all five were through the door and into the room with William. There they found him, passed out from the backlash of pain, crumpled into a heap on the floor.

“Let’s put him in a real bed, he’ll need all the rest he can get,” Ulrich said as he picked up their once enemy, once friend, and carried him toward a bed. Behind him the other four followed in a solemn procession. They knew they had a long road ahead of them, but they were determined to get the other boy through it.

**AaAaA**

As the hours ticked by Ulrich came to the unfortunate realization that William could not be saved. The psychological backlash had sent him into a self-imposed coma, a coping mechanism his mind implemented to protect itself from the emotions and memories.

Sitting in the chair next to the bed Ulrich took a deep breath before letting out an equally deep sigh, turning his eyes to the other members of the team as he spoke.

“There’s nothing we can do for him,” he began as he returned his eyes to the bed. “The psychological damage is too much, his mind just shut down.”

“So what are we going to do?” Odd asked from his position on the floor.

“We are going to have to turn him over to the doctors, there’s nothing we can do,” Ulrich replied as he looked at the ceiling, his failure written across his face. “But that’s not all; my memories of the future are fading away. In a few days’ time I won’t remember a thing that happened in the other timeline.”

“Isn’t that good?” Asked Odd as he looked around confused.

“No,” Jeremie replied from where he was sitting with his laptop, nose buried in the screen and Aelita next to him. “We have to get William to the doctors before Ulrich’s memories fade. He’s the only one who can explain what happened well enough to the doctors.”

“That still leaves us with the problem of what to tell the doctors about where William has been,” Aelita said as she watching Jeremie’s fingers dance across the keys, as smile on her lips.

“He was in school all last week until we grabbed him; lots of people saw him so we have to try to explain how he went missing from school on Friday. What we need is a convincing reason, anything that we can get the hospital to believe,” Yumi added as she paced the floor next to Ulrich.

“We could just do a ‘Return to the Past’,” Odd said.

Ulrich just shook his head.

“It wouldn’t work, the computer doesn’t have enough power to perform one and for something like this one we’d have to hack the code and change the RTTP parameters to keep William the way he is. There is also the problem that we’d need to be in the factory to hack the program. Not everything can be fixed by a return to the past Odd.” Ulrich explained as he rubbed his eyes.

With a sigh Ulrich lowered his hands to his sides.

“The only thing we can do is tell the truth,” he added with another sigh, his declaration drawing stunned looks from all assembled. “Well, at least a partial truth that is.”

Slowly a dawning grew on all the faces around him save Odd, smiles breaking over their faces as they realized how simple that explanation really was.

“Why’s everyone grinning, what’d I miss?” Odd asked as he looked around. Ulrich just laughed at the response, a smile growing on his own face as the plan began to fully form in his head.

“I’ll tell you over lunch Odd, you buy,” Ulrich said as he rose and lead the others out of the Hermitage and back toward _Kadic Academy_.

**AaAaA**

True to his word Ulrich did indeed make Odd pay for lunch, but in the end it was money well spent as Ulrich laid out the plan in whispered tones as they ate in his and Odd’s dorm room.

The plan was relatively simple; wait until Sunday morning when there were still only a few students on campus then get Jim and tell him something had happened to William in the forest.

The one lynch pin to the plan was to get William from the Hermitage to the Dorms without being seen. Thankfully Ulrich’s knowledge of Guerilla tactics came in handy when they needed to avoid anyone in the forest, which they did a few too many times.

“Why are there so many couples wandering in the forest,” Odd moaned as they finally closed the door to William’s dorm. He had the key in his pocket still so it just made sense they’d put him there, they were lucky that he hadn’t been assigned a roommate this term.

“Because,” Ulrich said with a grunt as he leveraged William onto the bed from his shoulder. “It’s a weekend and they want to be alone and not get caught by a teacher.”

“Oh,” Odd said as he considered this then shrugged, turning his attention back to William. “Now what?”

“Now comes the hard part,” Ulrich said as he walked to the door and left, closing it behind him.

While he was gone the others began to school their features into looks of worry and concern, which really wasn’t that hard to do, especially if this all backfired on them.

Soon Ulrich came racing back with Jim as he was explaining to the teacher how they’d found him and brought him back here, the nurse hot on their heels.

Shortly the teens had been pushed to the side as the nurse began to look William over, Jim was asking Ulrich to explain what happened again, this time to the Principal as well.

“We were playing in the forest,” he said as he gestured to his friends, looks of concern on their faces, “When we found him lying in the bushes. We tried to wake him but he wouldn’t wake up so we brought him back here and I ran to get Jim.”

Principal Delmas looked at the teens for a moment before sighing and patting Ulrich on the shoulder.

“You did the right thing Mr. Stern. How is he?” He addressed the last part to the nurse.

“He’ll need to be moved to a hospital, there’s nothing I can do for him,” she replied as she stood up shaking her head. “He appears to be in a coma, but I don’t see any signs of trauma.”

“Very well,” Principal Delmas said reluctantly, “I’ll call the hospital and let them know he’ll be transported there. Will you please contact an ambulance service to collect Mr. Dunbar? I shall inform his parents as well. As for the rest of you please return to your own rooms now and in the case of Ms. Ishiyama, please find another place to be at the moment.”

A chorus of ‘yes sir’ met his ears as he rubbed the bridge of his nose as the teens left. He could already feel the headache forming.

**AaAaA**

Back in Jeremie’s dorm the teens were in shock, they couldn’t believe that it had worked.

Ulrich was silent as he sat on the bed, Yumi taking her place beside him. Aelita leaned against the computer next to Jeremie, her hand on his shoulder. Odd just lay on the floor with his arms and legs spread.

It was a good 10 minutes of silence before it was broken by a small laugh which slowly grew in volume.

Ulrich was fighting the laugh but he was failing, not only that but he was also fighting the tears that tickled his eyes.

“Ulrich?” Yumi asked as she turned to her boyfriend in concern.

“It’s over,” he choked out between the mix of laughter and tears. “It’s finally over.”

Dawning realization hit the others as they too began to smile and laugh.

X.A.N.A. was finally gone, they were finally free, and they could be normal everyday kids again.

Yumi threw herself into Ulrich’s arms as she cried tears of joy. Aelita grabbed Jeremie from his chair and kissed him before letting him drop back to his seat with a goofy grin on his face. Odd started to dance around the room in joy, humming one of his songs as he did.

Their joy continued for several minutes before they all quieted down.

“What happens now,” Yumi asked as she once again cuddled her boyfriend.

“I don’t know,” he replied with a smile, for the first time in too long he didn’t know what was going to happen next. “The doctors will treat William but I doubt he’ll ever wakeup, but I do know that we need to continue on with our lives. I lost you guys once and I couldn’t stand to lose you again, so let’s promise here and now that no matter what happens from here on out we will all remain friends.”

His friends all smiled and nodded their heads in ascent.

Ulrich leaned over and gently kissed Yumi.

“Stay with me forever?” He asked her as he cupped her face.

“Always and forever,” she replied as she leaned forward to kiss him back, the others cheering for them.

**AaAaA**

The End


End file.
